Spartans never die
by Ajay46
Summary: Noble six. Alive and kickng ass in mew mombasa. A couple of far-fetched twists and inconsistent timeline. Also furry. Furry makes stuff more fun.


Spartans never die. Sometimes they just sleep-in…

_She wears a gown of rose pink that sways in the breeze, stars twinkle above in the azure sky. We hold hands and spin around. We dance like there is nothing else in the world. Then she stops. Her hand flies to her breast, she holds it there, a look of shock crosses her face. I am holding out my hand to her, no, am i? no, my fist… my fist is clenched. She pulls her hand away, deep blue liquid seeps out, then light, there is a blue light, I can see… on the ground…a helmet…whose helmet is that? I have seen it so many times before…no… it's mine… it's my helmet. The woman falls back, her form twists and contorts horribly, an elongated head, blue armour, jaws divided into three sections… I spin to my left unloading the rest of my clip into the charging figure, it does not falter and continues charging, it raises it's sword, I hold a knife in my hand, such a small thing. Somehow, I dodge him. I stab him, he must be dead. Agh! I land on my front and roll to the side as another blade slices the ground. My other hand rises to fire. I stand as he drops dead, I look around quickly, a knife in one hand and a 44. in the other. I… I can't… my vision is a blur…. I look down at the sword sticking out of my stomach, it glows blue, I stare into the alien face before me, warped into a vicious snarl. I clench my fist, raising my trembling arm, slowly, we stare each other down, and in one last act of defiance, I swing down my knife arm…_

_What… what is this? This light… am I dead? Its like, white and blue, it glows warmly, welcoming, I can almost feel my body, my legs, I take one step towards it, then another. 'I have done my duty' I say. I take another step. There is a hand on my shoulder, I turn around slowly, I do not fear any longer. It is the woman. She gazes into my eyes. I feel something, my calmness is gone, I feel a sense of anger, sadness, regret, why? I had so much more to do in my life. 'Not now, not today.' The woman says, then she is gone. The light turns slowly to a deeper shade of blue, then it begins to get lighter, it turns paler, an aqua colour, the light moves towards me, I feel a sudden cold, then the light engulfs me…_

I move my arm, it twitches, my leg moves a little, I open my mouth. Water suddenly rushes in. I fling myself up and out of the water, I pant and gasp for air as I grip the sides of the container. I wipe the wet hair from my eyes and open them. There is a human woman standing in front of me, a look of surprise on her face. She is wearing a white lab coat and holding a clipboard. I look around in desperation. I am in some kind of lab, scientists are staring at me in shock.

'What?' I ask. 'You never seen a Spartans dick before?' One of the fox women blushes, the cute one on the left. I give her a snap my fingers together and point at her and lift my head in that sorta gangsta-type way.

'Ajay, do you know where you are?' One of them asks. I shake my head. I have no idea what the hell is going on, how did I get here? Who am i? 'You were on reach.' He said. _Reach…_ that was it!

'The pillar of autumn!' I shout suddenly remembering. 'What happened? Tell me!' I demand. The man makes a gentle shushing motion with his hand.

'Settle down, first we'll get you some clothes, then we will explain the rest, but there is nothing to be worried about.' I look down at my naked body.

'Oh, yeah okay then.' I lift myself out of the tank and flick my legs over the side and land on the ground. Most of the scientists look away.

'Where to?'

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I walk back into the science lab wearing a fresh suit of clothes. A suit of dark green overalls. The man who looks like the lead scientist greets me as I enter.

'This may be a little hard to believe Ajay, but you were killed on reach. I blinked in disbelief. 'You see, we eventually managed to retrieve your body from reach, it was not easy, but we did it.' He said. 'When you died, a small part of your brain containing your personality was left intact. Do you remember the AI you delivered on reach?' I stand silently in thought. Yes, the AI, the blue thing in the container. 'Well, before you delivered it, the AI…' The scientist took a second to work out how to explain it, 'Made a copy of your short term memory. Using what was left of your body and brain, your memory contained in the AI and a lot of very, and I mean _very_ expensive cybernetic parts, we rebuilt you.' I look back down at myself again.

'I don't feel like a robot.'

'That's because you are a sort-of android-cyborg. We weaved your nervous system through a synthetic skin suit so you could feel as natural as possible. I look at my arm; the red fur looks exactly the same as I remember it. I run one finger through the fur, it still feels the same. 'Do you remember anything?' I lean back against the wall as I think deeply.

_The seat rocks back and forth vigorously as the warthog bounces along the rough track. I hold an assault rifle in one hand, the other holds the side of the warthog. We roll onto the tarmac and the rocking stops. I put down my rifle and pick up my helmet. Black with a nice grey finish. A little grubby though. I wipe a smudge of dirt off the visor and gaze into it as if there was an unseen face behind it. Unlike the helmets the humans wore, it was elongated at the front to accommodate my muzzle. The whole thing was covered in runes and etchings into the surface. I carved them into it with my knife. There were waves, spiky bits, all sorts of random symbols. I put the helmet on the floor of the warthog and grab the dog-tag around my neck. It reads; Ajay Siiks. On the back, "Raida" is carved into the back crudely. I laugh at the inscription. Carved by the guys back home._

'_Raider, honestly.' I mutter to myself.' I steal Victoria's undies one time as a joke, and that's all people remember me for?' I shake my head. 'Damn, that bitch kicked my ass that day.' The warthog rolled to a stop. I put on my helmet, grab my gun and jump out. A human male approaches me wearing blue armour, high rank. I salute him._

'_Sir! I was directed here for assignment to noble team, sir!' the man waved a hand dismissively._

'_Cut the "sir yes sir" crap. We're all comrades here. I'm Carter, if you will, leader of noble team. I'm noble one.' He walks away and motions for me to follow him. He walks into a hangar and introduces me to the rest of the team._

'_Noble two, three, four and five. You're noble six.' Noble six. I think. Oh the irony. People always used to get my name, Siiks, mixed up with six, but it actually rhymed with "likes". Number two was wearing a lighter blue armour suit and had a slightly slimmer build than the others. Three had a wicked skull on his helmet and was toying with a knife, four had his helmet off and was bald and polishing a sniper rifle, and five was standing in a corner, he was the biggest of the lot._

'_Welcome six, I trust you had a good ride here?' I looked at noble two for a few seconds in slight confusion. A woman? She had a trace of Russian in her voice. 'I am Kat, this is Emile Jun and Jorge.' She says as she points at each respectively. Carter approached Kat._

'_You know what you need about this guy?' He asks._

'_Yes, even the things ONI didn't want us to know.' Kat turns to me. 'We know everything about you, previous assignments, skills, personality everything. I have to say, I am quite impressed.' I smile at her recognition. 'But I know your type. Don't do anything rash or dangerous. We are a team here, we don't need any heroics.' Jorge grunted in the corner._

'_Don't do anything dangerous? What is he in noble team for? Motivational support?' Kat ignored his comment._

'_Take your pick of the weapons in the chest there, and then I will lead you to the falcon we are using.' The other members of noble team left except for Kat, who waited for me. I sift through the trunk until I find what I am looking for. I lift the weapon out and take some shells out of the ammunition box. I load the eight shells into the gun and switch the safety on._

'_Are you ready six?' Kat asks from behind me._

'_As ready as I'll ever be.' I say, ready for anything. She leads me out of the hangar._

'_So how long have you been in noble team for?' I ask, trying to make small talk._

'_I have been here for a year now. When you join noble team your life expectancy decreases tenfold.' She says to me._

'_Yeah well I got a lot more stuff to do before I die, sorry.' I tell her with a big smile. She stares at me unsurely for a few seconds._

'_You are a very strange creature.' She says without expression. 'But I like you. It's good to have somebody around who can stay positive in these times.' I maintain my smile._

'_Well thanks, I like you too.' I say. 'Quite a bit actually.'_

'_Don't get fresh with me six. This relationship is strictly professional.'_

'_The profession where you sell sex tapes on the internet?' I ask quickly. She stares back at me coldly._

'_If you could manage to use that quick witty mind of yours for something constructive, you could go far.' I shrug._

'_Tried it once didn't like it.' I say. 'I prefer to use it to come up with pick-up lines on the spot.' I say. Kat looks at me with an intrigued look._

'_Why is it that I have not shot you yet?'' She asks. 'five minutes after we meet each other, you're already trying to "pick me up", but I have not lashed out at you, I do not feel annoyed, why is that?' I shrug with a smile._

'_Just pure animal magnetism I guess.' Kat shakes her head._

'_If you say so.'_

'I… I remember meeting noble team.' I reply. 'I remember from that point up to my last fight.' I say reflectively, remembering what it felt like to be dead. The scientist nodded. And scribbled on his pad for a while.

'We will have to perform a psychological analysis on you too deem if you are ready to be back on the field. In the meantime, you shall remain here.' He says.

'Here?' I ask. 'Where's here?' The scientist smiles warmly.

'We are currently on a UNSC frigate. You will have free roam of the ship. Do what you want, meet the marines, have a chat, whatever. Your room is Cabin A-4, have a good sleep tonight and come back tomorrow morning at nine so we can see how you are.' The scientist turns and leaves through an automatic door on the opposite side of the room. I stand in the middle of the room idly. A man is looking through a microscope at a table. The vixen I saw earlier stands on the other side of a table from me, pretending to be occupied in her work. I sit on the edge of the table. She quickly glances at me and then back to her clipboard. I fake a yawn and lie down across the table, so that my head lies right over her clipboard so she can't see it.

'Hullo.' I say with my usual warm-smile-that-gets-all-the-ladies. She blushes slightly and averts her eyes towards something else. 'Wat'cha doing?'

'Oh, just analysing, some… things.' She said nervously. I raise an eyebrow and say in a slightly suggestive tone:

'Yes, I saw you analysing my thing earlier.' A sudden look of shocked embarrassment crossed her face.

'E-excuse me?' She squeaked as her face reddened.

'Yeah, I saw you analysing that clipboard earlier, I just presumed it was something to do with me. You know my data thing?' The vixen regained her composure slightly.

'Oh, yes… yes that was, some things about you.' She said.

'So, what'cha doing after that?' I ask. The fox shrugged.

'Nothing.' She said

'Well if you're doing nothing, care to dine with me tonight?' The woman turned red again.

'What, me? With you?' She squeaked. I shrugged.

'I'd hate to leave a lovely vixen like you all alone by yourself, and there has to be a decent place to get a meal around here.' The woman stood trembling for a few seconds.

'Um… yes, please, I think… I would like that.' She managed a smile.

'Great! I'll meet you here at seven.' I said. I jumped off the table and headed out the door, giving a quick wave as I left.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I strut down the grey corridors with confidence. I hold my head high. Why? Because I'm a motherfucking hero. I turn and push open the double doors to the mess hall with an extravagant movement. The room is bustling with conversation. I walk up to a counter where a bored looking man is serving the classic mystery meat. Generally, a mince-like substance. There are some chunky looking mashed potatoes, soft-looking carrots and other questionable veges. I grab a small plate of the mystery mince and head over in search of the table. One table has four humans whispering to each other, one has a group of older marines who are talking to each other. A third one had a group of young marines, one was making extravagant gestures that vaguely resembled shooting something, and shouting. I walk over and sit at the end of the table. I lean back casually as the others stop and look at me.

'Sup.' I say with a nod.

'Who are you fur?' One opposite asks me.

'Siiks. Ajay Siiks.' I answer. He grunts.

'Never heard of you. Where you from?'

'Noble.' I say proudly. He thinks for a second.

'Bullshit. All of noble team's dead.' Reality suddenly set in.

'I got better.' I said. I would probably get upset later about the death of my team, but not now. I didn't work like that. The guy opposite me just grunted again.

'Whatever, sit here if you want, but don't be a dick.' I dug into my mince as one of the other men started up again.

'And I went straight out the window and landed on him!' He yelled. 'Tackled him to the ground and stabbed that bitch good.'

'So what? I once killed a hunter with my knife.' Another said.

'How many times did you shoot him first Jimmy? I reckon the rocket launcher would have done the most damage.' The man looked at me for a second.

'What about you?' He asked.

'Huh?'

'Say something man. What's on your dogtag?' Dogtags held a lot of information. Names, identification numbers, assignments, etc. Every dogtag had a nickname carved into the back by the soldiers comrades.

'Raida.' I pulled the dogtag up from my shirt and showed them. The guy nodded.

'This here's Ping.' He pointed to a guy on his left. 'He once almost killed himself with a fuel-rod gun. It bounced off his cover he was hiding behind and blew up behind him.' He points to the one beside me. 'That's Tiger. Because-'Tiger guy cut in.

'because of my awesome knife skills and speed.' He said. The first guy shrugged.

'That's what he says. I've heard it's cause' he banged one in the training academy.'

'Shut up man, that's bull!' Tiger yelled at him. I shrug.

'Doesn't sound that bad to me.' I say. 'I wouldn't be ashamed if I banged a tiger. They got nice curves, some of them.'

'Yeah, well you're different! Animals try fucking each other all the time!' Tiger shut up suddenly as I stared at him slit-eyed. He looked down at the table to avoid my eyes.

'Damn, jimmy, that's harsh.' Ping said quietly. I quickly changed my expression to a smile.

'Ahh, who the hell am I kidding? That's my favourite hobby.' I said with a laugh. 'Yeah, I'm an animal. So what? Most animals sleep, eat and fuck all day. The difference is, I shoot stuff too.' The other two grinned at the surprised Jimmy.

'Why do you guys always pick on me?' Jimmy said as he put his head in his hands. The first guy laughed.

'Anyway, the guys call me Choker. Cause' I once stuck a frag down an elites throat.' I smile at the thought. Why haven't I tried that? 'So what's your storey?' Choker asked. I shrug a little.

'Dudes in academy dared me to steal this chicks undies. A real hottie. I did it of course. Got the crap beaten out of me for it.' I said the last sentence with a laugh. The other guys laughed too.

'So what, you broke into her room at night, stole her panties and ran away?' Choker asked with a grin. I shook my head with a smile.

'Not exactly. I fucked her first. Left with her underwear. Got caught showing them to my mates the next day. She kicked the crap out of me.' The other guys laughed a bit more.

'So is your entire life just one big orgy of fighting and sex?' Ping asked. I hold out a finger accusingly.

'Hey!' I say. 'I like drinking too.'

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

_Five. To fight for something. I place my hand over my heart as Jorge approaches. He removes his helmet and takes my hand in his._

'_Promise me six. Promise me you will not give up fighting the covenant, that you will do everything in your power to stop them.' I nod._

'_Of course I will Jorge, you know that.' Jorge grabs me by the shoulder with his free hand and lifts me up._

'_Jorge… what are you doing?' I ask frantically. He walks forward, still holding me in his grasp._

'_Somebody has to detonate that bomb six.' He continues walking._

'_No Jorge!' I yell. 'There is another way, I'm sure of it! We could rewire it to-'_

'_There's no time six.'_

'_Jorge…'_

'_This is your fight now six.' He stops at the edge of the gravity containment field and brings me close to his face. 'Do me proud.' He pushes me. I feel the world falling away from me as I drop through space, the corvette slowly disappears from view as it docks with the super-carrier._

'_JORGE!' I yell. But there is no point. In space nobody can hear you scream. The corvette erupts in a burst of intense light._

'_JORGE! NO!' I sob. A shimmering ball of blue fire plumes out from the carrier. Jorge is dead._

_I feel I have failed. Reach was taken. I tried my hardest, but I failed._

'_I am sorry Jorge.' I tell him with a sob. An ethereal voice echoes through the nothing._

'_You did not fail six.' It says. 'I asked you to do your best. You did. You made your stand against the covenant. You fought for something, You make me proud.' The voice echoes away again, back into the nothing from whence it came, leaving me with nothing but a hint of proudness.._

_Three. Defiance. The twisted and broken brute lies before me. The sound of death still rings in my ears. I look down at the hammer I am holding, then around me. Countless lie dead at my feet. They may be battered and broken, but my spirit is not. Something flashes in the comer of my eye. An elite, an energy sword._

'_Emile! Look out!' The MAC cannon fires again, the force from the shot reverberating across the metal platform on which I stand and almost causing me to fall over. The elite grabs the top rung of the ladder. A barrel, dark grey, pokes out from the control room. It erupts in a cone of bright light. The elite explodes and drops to the ground. Emile strides out from the cabin of the gun. Then suddenly, he is grabbed from behind The elite is huge. It lifts him right off the ground and turns him to face. It roars in his face and plunges it's sword into the Spartans body. I watch in horror as Emile is impaled on the blade. The elite rips the blade out of his body. "He is dead." I say to myself. But no… He reaches up, draws the knife from its sheath, and stabs the elite in a furious assault. The elite stumbles and then tips over. Emile falls to the ground with it. One holds a sword, one a knife. Both end equal. A last act of defiance._

'_Six…'_

'_Emile?'_

'_Yeah six, it's me.'_

'_Your dead…'_

'_Yeah, but so were you. And what matters is you put up a fight. You showed the covenant you wouldn't let up. And you're going to keep going six. Keep going hard. Defy them six. Show them you won't go down without a fight. Again…' Emile's voice faded away slowly…_

_Two. Just one shot. So simple. We walk into the vast main area of the building. Ten stories high with a shattered glass roof. Kat walks ahead of the group. She is thinking._

'_Well what I suggest we-' And that is it. She falls to the ground suddenly. The shot seems to sound an eternity later. We fire, we all fire, blinded by rage and confusion. We stop and rush to Kats side. There is a dark purple burn around the entry and exit points. We all stand silent. We don't bother to check her pulse. We know she is dead. How could this happen? She served on noble team for a year. Survived countless firefights and perilous missions, for this? To be killed by one simple jakal? One shot through the head? I cradle her lifeless head in my arms as tears drip onto her face. I feel something on my shoulder. It's carter. Of course it's carter. He's the leader. I turn around and gaze into the skull carving before my eyes. Emile is crouched behind me, one hand on my shoulder._

'_Just let it all out man. Let it out.' I turn and fall into his shoulder, still crying._

'_Just one shot… how?' I cry. Emile pats me on the back._

'_That's just the way things go six. War's a bitch.'_

'_Six…I am here.'_

'_Kat?'_

'_I need you to listen to me six. Be careful out there.'_

'_Kat, you know I will…'_

'_No six, listen. You know what happened to me. One shot. That was all it took. What if it happened to you six? You miss one jackal, and that's it.'_

'…_but I-'_

'_You remember the ship six, yes? You stopped it. Just one shot stopped it. One shot saved the pillar of autumn. Just remember six, the power of one bullet. Kats voice resonated for a while and disappeared._

_One. The last weapon. The scarab let out an ear-splitting sound as it fires it huge green ray._

'_Carter, we haven't got the weapons to deal with a scarab!' Emile says into his com unit._

'_We have one weapon left Emile.' Comes over the com._

'_Emile… what's he talking about?' I ask, fearing I know the answer. Emile looks down at his feet as he thinks._

'_Go hard Carter.' Emile says. There is a few seconds of silence, then the falcon comes roaring around the corner,_

'_Roger.' The falcon busts into a fireball as it collides with the scarab at full speed. The scarab, stumbles backwards, its back legs fall off the cliff. The front legs scrabble at the ground to no avail, it slide off the cliff face, and falls to the ground far below._

'_He did it for us six. Let's not let him down.' Emile says as he sets off._

_I stand looking at my feet. There is a hand on my shoulder. I look up at Carter. He looks back at me._

'_Don't give up hope Ajay.' Carters use of my name shocks me. 'If we give up hope that is the only true loss. There is always a way.' I stand silently. 'I knew you were special Ajay. From when I first saw you. You have a chance to save people now. You have been given another chance at life. The question stands, what will you do with it?' Carter slowly started fading from view. I can't feel his hand on me anymore._

'_What will you do..?'_

_Things are black. Where am i? This is strange…different..._

'_Six. You can see me?'_

'_Jun?'_

'_Yes, it is me.' I shake my head and look around in the blackness, but it is too dark._

'_No. NO! You are alive! You got away! Why are you here?' I scream into the darkness._

'_Six, war catches up with all of us. I know you are confused.'_

'_Damn right I am!' I yell. 'What happened? What is going on? JUN!'_

'…_six, you will find out one day, and I want you to know, its ok. You didn't know, I understand.'_

'_JUN!'_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I suddenly open my eyes. The grey ceiling stares back at me. I look to my left. The blanket has been moved aside. The vixen must have left while I was still asleep. I lie back comfortably, picturing the scene from last night with a smile. Of all the chicks I have slept with, she has to be in the top ten. I toss my blankets off and stretch out. I walk into the bathroom without getting dressed and jump straight into the shower, giving myself a quick wash. I change, eat some breakfast and head out my door to go to the lab.

All the scientists are busy at work. The vixen glances at me quickly as I enter. I kiss two fingers and point them in her direction.

'Morning professor.' I say as I enter. The lead scientist turns around.

'It's doctor, actually.' He says. I shrug.

'Morning doctor.' I say. The doctor puts down his clipboard on the table.

'Are you ready for your psychological analysis?' He asks.

'I'm always ready.'

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I walk back into the lab confidently. Doctor Bein follows me with his clipboard.

'Well, it seems you have passed your examination with flying colours. You are mentally fit enough to be released. We have detected no problems with your cybernetics either, so you are passing our expectations. I nod happily. 'It seems there is a nice retirement fund available for Spartans, should you wish to go that way.' I shake my head immediately.

'No dice doc, I'm standing and fighting.' I say proudly. Bien murmurs as he flicks through his clipboard pages.

'Well, as luck would have it, there is a squad of ODST's about to embark on a high priority mission back on earth tomorrow.' He says.

'ODST's? Those nut-cases that fall from orbit in their little drop pods to land right in the dead-centre of the enemies army?'

'Well, I assure you, it is much-'

'I'll do it.' I say with a grin. The doctor blinks in astoundment.

'What, really?' He asks. I nod my head eagerly.

'Hell yeah! Falling from orbit is awesome! Sign me up.' The doctor writes something on his page and rips it out, putting it on the table beside him.

'As you wish.'

'What's this high priority mission then?'

'The covenant are on earth.' My heart skipped a beat.

'What! Where?'

'New Mombasa. They managed to slip past our orbital defences.' My fist clenches tightly at the thought of the covenant on earth. My earth. My home.

'Doctor, I swear to god, I better be on that ship tomorrow, or I'm coming back here to kick your ass.'

The sea is a blue blur beneath me. The shuttle makes a slight _wrrrrr_ sound as we fly. I press my face to the window, wishing I could open it and stick my head out, feel the wind on my fur. I sit back down in my seat. I take a sip of my drink.

'Ugh, I hate coffee.' I mutter as I put the cup on a tray in front of me. I slouch back in my seat, and ask for the hundredth time:

'Are we there yet?'

'Yes.' My ears prick up as I quickly sit upright. The shuttle slows down. I manage to get a glimpse of the hulking grey ship we are approaching. As we near, the shuttle slows down more, and suddenly stops with a small jolt. I pull off my seatbelt and jump out of my seat. I stand by the shuttle door, panting slightly in anticipation. The shuttle pilot stands and approaches me by the door.

'Are you ready boy? Are you ready?' He says playfully. I stare back at him.

'Shut it Wilton.' I say. Wilton. What a gay last name.

'Somebodies being a bad boy.' He says in the same infuriating tone while he wags his finger. I turn towards him and step close to him. I am about thirty centimetres shorter than him, but I still stand there, staring.

'Listen kid. I _will not_ be patronized by some freckle-faced pre-pubescent teen with genitals as diminutive as his name implies, so get out of my way before I kick your ass all the way back to grade school.' He looks away and quickly with an embarrassed look opens the door before making a hasty retreat to his pilot chair. I step out of the shuttle into the airlock.

'No hard feelings!' I shout back as the door closes. The airlock closes and the shuttle lifts off. A helmetless Spartan dressed in standard issue ODST gear stands just outside the airlock.

'What a nice kid.' I say as I approach. The man and I salute as we meet.

'You're the new guy?' He asks. I nod.

'Yeah. The new addition.' He looks me up and down.

'I'm Buck.' He says. 'They tell me you volunteered for this.'

'They told you right.' I say. He nods.

'Well follow me and I'll show you the others.'

There are several men in the room we enter. One is sitting on a bench with a Spartan laser on his lap, another is cleaning a sniper rifle, one is leaning against a wall with a rocket-launcher beside him and the last is sitting quietly on a bench with a SMG in his hands. Buck points at the one with the Spartan laser.

'Dutch. Heavy weapons expert.' Dutch looks up.

'Hey kid.' He says. Buck motions toward the one near the rocket launcher.

'Mickey, explosives.' Mickey waves. Buck then points at the sniper.

'Romeo. Sniper.' Romeo looks up from his gun.

'Hey, look here! A fur, well isn't this going to be fun.' He mutters the last sentence.

'Do you have a problem man?' I ask accusingly. Romeo shakes his head dismissively.

'No, as long as you don't eat anybody.' He says it with just enough humour that I forgive him. Buck looks at the last one, who is sitting silently.

'That's rookie. He's the rookie.' Rookie looks up briefly, then back down at his weapon. 'He doesn't say much.' Buck says. 'Also there's-' There is the sound of a door sliding open.

'Oh, please no…' No, way. A huge smile crosses my face. I turn around and see the surprised figure behind me. I wink at her.

'Hey Tory-baby, how's it going?' The woman buries her head in her hands in embarrassment as buck looks from her to me with a look of shock.

'Ooh, this looks interesting.' I hear mickey say from behind me. Buck stares at me.

'Do you two know each other?' He asks demandingly.

'Yeah, we were in the academy together and we-'

'-trained together.' Victoria cuts in. I grin slyly at her.

'All right, if that's what you want to call it. Training. We _trained_ every night for a week.' I said. When buck looked away from Victoria towards me, she mouthed something angry looking.

'What are you saying?' Buck demanded. I hold my hands up in front of me innocently.

'Hey chill out man, I'm just being a dick. We ran some simulations together, sparred a few times, that's all man.' I say in my usual "I'm-just-kidding-i-didn't-actually-have-sex-with-her" voice, one I have a lot of practice with using that has got me out of trouble a number of times with parents.

Buck turned slightly red.

'Yeah, ok then. Never mind.' He said apologetically. 'I'll go get you some armour to wear. Hopefully we have something your shape.' He said changing the topic and quickly leaving. Victoria approaches me slowly.

'What the hell are you trying to you idiot!' She whispered loudly.

'I'm a lovable idiot.' I say with a smile.

'Lovable? Lovable my ass!' She hissed.

'Actually your-'

'Don't even say it Ajay.'

'Aww, come on tory, you love me.'

'Not after what you did.'

'Whatever.'' I say dismissively, and then smile. 'It probably turned you on.' Victoria opened her mouth to say something, and then stopped.

'Give me one reason why I shouldn't kick your ass right now!' She demanded, probably a little too loud. I smile warmly.

'Because I'm adorable.' I say with a small flick of my tail.

'You are not adorable.' She says staunchly. I cock my head to the side.

'You know, you have a tendency to nod your head slightly downward when you lie.' I tell her. She squints at me.

'Well you blink more frequently when you're horny. I remember.' I blink a few times to make a point.

'Stop being a dick Ajay.' I open my mouth, but then suddenly shut it. _No…_

'Yeah, that's what I thought.' Victoria turned around and took a step away. _…Yes…_

'You used to love dicks.' …_no!_ There is a quick flash of movement. I see it but don't move.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The light hurts my eyes as I open them. Everybody is standing over me with looks of varying concern. Victoria is crouching beside me.

'Oh, god Ajay! I… I'm sorry, I didn't-'

'Jeez victoria, you weren't actually supposed to hit me.' I say as I wipe the blood from my muzzle. 'It's just sparring; you don't have to beat the crap out of me.' I sit up.

'You were sparring?' Buck asks. I nod slowly.

'Yeah, just like… a warm up before we jump. You know, gets the adrenaline flowing.' I stand up and stretch off.

'Well no more. It's fifteen minutes till drop and we can't have anyone unconscious.' Buck says. He hands me some pieces of armour. 'These should fit. Go try them on, then meet us in the next room.' Buck picked up his weapon and headed towards a doorway. I go the opposite way to find a room to change.

I stare at my reflection. He stares back. I turn around to get a look at the back of my suit.

'Ajay.' I look at the door.

'Victoria?' I ask.

'Yes, are you dressed? Can I come in?' I shrug.

'Would it really make any difference?' The doorknob turns slowly and Victoria pokes her head around the doorway. She opens the door fully and walks in.

'Victoria, it's like ten minutes till drop. I don't think we have time for this now.' I say. I ease off the suggestive tone a bit. Victoria walks towards me and sits beside me on the bench. I pull my helmet off and sit it on the ground. 'Sorry about what I said earlier. I went a bit far.' I say. She makes an _mmm_ sound in her throat by way of agreement. Its sort-of forgiving sounding. She changes the topic.

'Why are you like this Ajay?' She asks. I shrug.

'Like what?' I ask.

'You're always so happy, so flirty, you're so…playful. Why? This is a warzone, there war, death, depression everywhere. But then there's you. How are you always so positive?' I lean back against the wall with a sigh.

'You know victoria, I was treated like shit in school.' I said. 'I obviously had a very charming personality, but that wasn't enough.' I close my eyes and think for a while. 'The kids there hated me. They hit me, called me names and all sorts else. Because I was different.' I look deeply into victoria's eyes. 'Do you know what I did for the first ten years of my life? Nothing. I felt like I was a flaw, a problem, like… like I was wrong. I didn't try anything because I thought I would fuck it up. I moped around everywhere and always felt like shit.' I look down at my hands. 'Then one day, a marine came to school. He was like me, but they didn't call him names, or hit him, they respected him. He was a great guy. He was funny, cool and he always seemed to be happy. That's when I realised. I wanted to be like him. Respected, cool, happy.' I look back at victoria. 'So I went for it. I tried to find positives in everything. I enjoyed it. It became easy and fun for me to be positive. From that, I discovered myself. I discovered other things I enjoyed doing that I had been afraid to try, I created my personality.' I smile. 'And it turns out; I am a happy, flirty, playful person. That's me. I enjoy behaving like that. So, I behave like that all the time, to the fullest extent.' I smile at victoria. 'Now are you just going to sit there and try understanding what I just said, or can we just assume it was really deep and emotional, and make out?' Victoria shakes her head and giggles slightly.

'No Ajay, we can't.' I shrug.

'Whatever. At least you didn't hit me.' I say as I stand. 'And just for the record, you love me.'

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

'Just run this by me again.' I say into my com unit. It crackles to life as the response comes.

'Well, we're going to drop down, land on the covvy ship, blow a hole in the side of it, go inside, and blow heaps of other shit up.' Mickey, of course. I smile at the thought.

'No mickey, we are going to infiltrate the ship, undetected.' Says buck. I grunt into my com unit.

'I like mickey's idea better.' I say.

'Hey, I think I like this guy!' Mickey says.

'Shut up you two, countdown!'

'_Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one'…clink…_ My tiny metal death-trap suddenly begins falling. Amongst the feeling of… whatever force it is, I almost forget to look at our target. It's going to be pretty hard to miss that. The ship is huge, like… really…fucking huge! It's the usual covenant blue/purple colour, and… and really big!

'Wait! I'm detecting some kind of energy fluxuation!' Victoria's voice crackles over the loudspeaker. Blue-white light begins to gather at the end of the ship.

'Is it some kind of weapon?' Mickey asks.

'Negative! It's engaging its warp drive! Hold-' The ship seems to stretch out for a few milliseconds, then disappears in a flash of light, accompanied by a deafening _boom_. I can feel my pod shaking more vigorously as the shockwave approaches.

'Oh shy_iiiiiiiiiiiit!_' I yell as the shockwave crashes into me. My pod goes tumbling out of control in a spiralling motion.

_Boom!_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The sound resounds in my ears; my vision sways and spins as the world comes into focus. Dull but unmistakeable sounds are filling my ears. I frantically look around my pod. I pull the three safety levers and the front of my pod flies open, propelled by a little explosive force. I unbuckle myself, grab my Assault rifle and jump out. I see buck to my left up a set of stairs, shooting at some covvies I can't see around the corner. I dash towards the corner and flatten myself against the wall. Specks of yellow/white light flash past towards Buck. I attach my rifle to my back and take out my shotgun. Its custom made, with a wicked-sharp bayonet on the end. It swing around the corner straight into the brute. I swing the shotgun up before he can react and stick it into his throat. His head explodes with red as I fire, splattering the veranda above him. I duck back behind a pillar as a few searing bolts of plasma fly past.

'Buck!' I yell as I switched my guns around. 'Where?' Buck stops firing for a second.

'Eleven low!' He shouts back. I swing around the corner. The road dips down to where the two brutes are. A grunt is at the top of the dip firing at Buck. I run out from my cover towards it firing. It stumbles backwards as I fire at it. I stop firing as I continue to run, a fusillade of spiker rounds and plasma bolts flies past. I draw my knife in my free hand and stab it into the grunt, who throws his hands up in defence. It looks up as it realises it missed it. I stare back at it maniacally; it looks up at the knife lodged in his life support system. I kick my foot forward with full force and yank my knife away. The grunt flies backwards and spirals out of control as it's propelled through the air by the expelling gas from the tank rupture. The brutes leap out of the way as the grunt circles towards it, and explodes in a green flash. The blast knocks them both to the ground.

I charge at one of the downed brutes with my shotgun. I blast it off its feet as it tries to stand, and run towards the second. It is already on its feet and holding its spiker in a threatening way. I approach it quickly and raise my gun. It leaps at me as I frantically try to work the jammed trigger in panic. I step back and raise my gun in front of me as the blades of the spiker come down. I feel my arms flung aside as the blades break through the centre of my barrel. I lie on the ground in front of the enraged brute; he lifts his arm to swing again. I kick my legs forward and roll between his legs. One of the advantages of being only 1.50 tall. I jump to my feet behind him and look at the broken pieces of my gun in my hands.

'You bastard…' I say with gritted teeth. I spin around and face the brute. 'I put this together myself…' I say as I look down at the broken pieces in my hands and toss them aside, drawing my knife. I see buck approaching from behind the brute, but hold my hand up and shake my head. I hold my knife like a dagger, so that the blade is facing downwards. I motion with my hand to the brute.

'Come get some.' I remove my helmet and bare my fangs as it lumbers towards me. It swings the spiker at me. I sidestep right and nick its arm with my knife. It swings the spiker in a backhand attack. I see it and duck under his arm, stabbing the knife into its foot, It grunts in pain. I pull the knife out and slide it up its leg and up its stomach, to Its shoulder, making one huge gash along the way. I step back as it clutches at its stomach. I leap towards it with a growl, bowling it over on the ground. I punch it in its already bleeding stomach as it thrashes about beneath me. I lunge forward and sink my teeth into its throat. It thrashes a bit more, I twist my head violently, snapping its neck in my jaws, and then it stops. I stand up and put my knife away. I turn towards Buck with a little smile.

'You… err…' Buck says points to where his mouth probably is through the helmet. '…you have a bit… you know…' I lick my lips with a satisfied _mrrrrr, _savouring the flavour. Buck seems to be looking at me strangely.

'Dude, I'm an animal. Its in my nature.' I tell him as I replace my helmet.

'Huh, what else is in your nature?' He says rhetorically.

'Shit loads and shit loads of sex.' I look over at the huge security doors that blocked the road. 'You do have a way to get through that don't you?' I ask. The com unit begins crackling.

'…_zzzzzzzz…ello? Buck-zzzzzzz…jay? Ar-zzzzzz…them out-zzzzz…I thi-zzzzzzzzzzzzz…don't make it out-zzzzzzzzzzz…I love you.'_

'Victoria!' Buck and I say simultaneously. We look at each other.

'We have to find her!' Buck says. I nod agreement. Buck breaks into a sprint towards the security gates. I turn around to and scoop up the spiker behind me, weigh it in my hands and sprint after Buck. He heads to the centre of the gates and begins punching at a keypad on the door. 'We have to move quickly! She's in trouble!' He says. The gate shudders as the opening mechanism activated. Buck moved across to the gap where the two doors met. I stand behind him as the whirr off the gates begins. Bu there is another sound… something unmistakable. The pitch is so high I don't think Buck can hear it, but I can.

'Buck… step away from the door…' I say warily as I step away slowly.

'No, I have to find victoria! We have to hurry!'

'No I'm serious buck, get the fuck away from that door…' I warn.

'Don't tell me what to do kid.' I grab buck and pull the struggling marine away from the door. 'Let go of-'

'Hunter you idiot!' I toss him aside as the door opens slightly. A searing ray of green energy flies through the gap and explodes with an enormous green flash. We run away from the door and jump behind a nearby low wall.

'Shit! I don't have time for this!' Buck yells as he looks over out cover at the hunter. 'Turn around you fat bastard so I can shoot you in the back!' He ducks back down as the hunters response flies overhead. 'Are you familiar with tactical hunter takedowns beta-three?' I nod my head.

'We need to take this guy out before we have a beta-four.' Buck nods in agreement. 'Shotgun beta-three-one!' I say with a grin. 'That means your beta-three-two.' I tell him. He blinks in confusion.

'You're _volunteering_ for beta-three-one?'

'Yup. I'd do beta-six-one, but you probably don't know it, so it's three-one. You ready?' I ask as I hold out my spare clips to buck. He nods and takes them.

'Let's kick ass.' I vault over the wall and face the hunter. It growls as it stares at me with its many beady little eyes. I hold my spiker in one hand and fire at it, running around it and making sure to aim at the neck. It turns around as it follows me, tracking me with its beam. I see buck jump over the wall and fire at the hunter from behind. I keep up my fire to ensure it remains distracted. although, my shots don's do much more than that due to the heavy armour. That's why buck was attacking from behind. I jump behind a car as the hunter stops and charges up its beam. The car explodes, knocking me back a few feet. I am lying on my front. I look up at the hunter, it charges at me with its spiked shield ready to strike. I finger a plasma grenade as it approaches.

_Jamie holds it in one hand, a blue orb with three little green spots, like a tiny bowling ball. He stands calmly as the hunter charges. I can't see much more, the hunter is in the road._

'_Jamie!' I yell. I look at the body of my brother lying on the ground, dead. I look into the hunters eyes with a little fear. It turns toward me and charges it's beam. I leap behind the nearest cover. An odd noise sounds from over my cover. The hunter lies dead on the ground._

'_Oh yeah!' _

'_Jamie! That was dumb! Why did you do that?' I whine as his body rematerializes beside me. 'You lost us points.'_

'_Hey, it's a 2500 point profit! Quit your whining. It was cool wasn't it?' I smile and nod. 'You want me to show you how to do it? Though, I'd like to find a way to do it without dying…'_

I stand quickly as the hunter charges. I hold the blue orb in one hand as it approaches.

'Jamie, don't screw me now…' I whisper to the plasma grenade. At five metres distance, I run at the hunter. I throw the grenade straight upwards a little. I flick myself backwards as the black, spiked mass swings over my head. I slide between its legs. I jump back as the plasma grenade, that has attached to its neck explodes. My hearing is nullified by the high-pitch blast. The shield comes swinging over the hunters left shoulder. I dodge to the left and stab my knife into the exposed skin on its back. It lifts its shield again and twists to the right. I stab my knife into the hunter again and jump onto its back, trying my best to hold on. It spins left and swings its shield around; I cling to its back as it spins. I grab hold of one of the long black spines protruding from its upper back and pull myself up. It thrashes about, trying to reach me between its shoulders, but fails miserably. I stab at its neck with my knife viciously, twisting it as I do so. The hunter leans over forwards suddenly, then throws itself backwards. I step up onto its shoulder and flip forward as the hunter crashes down on its back. I land on its stomach and jump off. It stands again. Then I see buck. The hunter is too preoccupied with me and doesn't notice buck, who runs behind it and does something, then jumps away. The hunter starts turning as buck runs around the side of it towards me.

'Beta-four!' He yells. The hunter's torso explodes with a shower of red. I turn and jump aside as a second hunter fires a blast. I get my assault off my back and fire at it for some reason, and quickly run out of ammo. I realise I lost my spiker somewhere in the fight with the first. A glowing green thing arcs through the air towards the hunter and explodes with a familiar green blast. I turn around and see buck. He twists one of the green vials sticking out of the dead hunters cannon and pulls it out. He throws it at the second hunter. I run towards the hunter with my knife out as Buck continues to throw the fuel cells at it. I run as I approach, a brute comes around the corner and surprises me. It hits me in the face with a lethal (almost) spiker clothesline and i hit the deck. It picks me up by the collar and tosses me aside. I land on my back and roll over onto my feet. It hold up its spiker. I sidestep the first few shots and toss my knife at it. It clutches at its face as buck runs up behind it. He tackles it to the ground and stabs it with his knife a few times, then stands up. He passes my knife back to me.

'All that fancy shit with that hunter and you can't even beat up a brute?' He says. I am confused myself.

'Well I'm full of cybernetics and shit now. They can't have rebuilt my muscular system correctly.' I tell him. 'So what did you do to that first hunter?' I ask.

'You remember when you stabbed it in the back heaps of times?' He asks. I nod.

'Well, I just stuck a frag in one of the wounds. Boom.' I smile and nod again.

'Nice.' I look around me. Everything seems to be dead now. It's sort of empty feeling. I feel a rumbling and swear.

'What's wrong? Buck asks.

'Nothing. Let's go find victoria.' Buck holds his hand up to stop me.

'If it's something important I need to know.' He says. I shake my head.

'No…it's just…' I look at my feet. 'I'm hungry.' He looks at me strangely, then sighs.

'All right, just cut a bit and let's get going.' I scarper towards the hunter as Buck looks away.

I tear half the meat off the chunk and chew it happily, holding my helmet under my arm and running after Buck. He runs around a corner and holds up a hand in my direction. I drop my precious meat and pull my helmet on. I stand beside buck and look down in the plaza. A couple of brutes and grunts are standing outside a drop pod; one brute is trying to rip the door off.

'Victoria.' I hear buck say. I waste no time and charge down the stairs towards the group with buck behind me. We take out the grunts first with concentrated fire and duck behind cover as the brutes fire back. I toss a frag over my shoulder and step out from cover firing. Buck runs out and stabs the last remaining brute. Buck immediately heads to the door of the drop pod and punches on some numbers in a keypad on the side. I watch eagerly. The pod door hisses as it depressurises inside, jets of air burst out from the door. Buck and I stare open mouthed.

'It's empty…' I say as I move in for a closer inspection. There is a sudden second of silence. I spin around with my gun ready. A plume of blue blood erupts from the side of the things head, and it crashes to the ground with a squelch sound. A mass of bloated blue skin and a couple of triangley things stick out from its back.

'Romeo?' I hear buck say.

'Get away!' I push buck away from the thing and leap aside.

'What's wrong now?' he demands. I hold up four fingers, then three, two, on- The thing starts vibrating violently and promptly explodes itself. Romeo runs down the steps towards us, careful not to trip over.

'You're welcome.' He says to us.

'What was that?' Buck asks as he shakes his head bewilderedly.

'Dunno.' I say with a shrug. I walk over to what is left of the thing and look at it carefully. 'I saw them on reach.'

'You were on reach?' Romeo asks.

'Yeah. Some crazy shit went on there. Got killed actually.' I say. Romeo stares at me. I wish I could see the expression on his face through his visor. 'They found my body and somehow managed to put me together.' Romeo continues to stare.

'I heard they sent a team to look for the last of noble team.' He says. 'I heard they only found his helmet, and his body was gone.'

'Well you heard wrong.' I tell him. I look down at the scorched remains.

'They usually shield the covvies, so we shoot them down.' I say. Buck is crouching down, looking at something. He picks it up and turns around to show us.

'The blue thing had it…' He says quietly.

'I wouldn't worry buck. Those things can't do anything to kill you. They have no weapons. It's more likely that she just pulled it off because it was damaged in the crash.' I point at the damaged visor.

'He's right buck.' Romeo puts his hand on bucks shoulder. 'Victoria's tough. She'll be fine.' Buck stands up.

'Yeah, ok.'

Buck looks at the two of us. 'All right guys. We're heading for the NMPD HQ now. I nod.

'Let's kick ass.'

An explosion goes off in the distance. It looks so small from here… probably some poor marine fighting for his life… Romeo sits on the edge of the helipad beside me.

'I swear to god Romeo, if you push me I will be reborn as a hunter, track you down, stick my plasma beam up your ass and blow you up from the inside.' I tell him as I look down at the city hundreds of metres below me.

'I'll keep that in mind.' He says.

'Shhhh! Quiet!' Buck says quickly as he holds one hand up to his helmet. 'I read you Dutch, what is your position? Yes, on the helipad, 112th floor, can you arrange a pick up? Shit… ok, we'll be on floor 109, meet us there, out.' Buck takes his hand away. 'Buck and mickey have managed to commandeer a pelican, but they can't meet us at this level. The covenant have AA guns from floor 110, so the best we can do is 109.' Buck looks around for a second. 'Hey Romeo, you remember all those covenant we sidestepped on the way up?'

'Yeah.'

'Now we get to kill them.' As I stand I feel my legs ache. 112 floors is a hell of a long way to climb up stairs.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

We burst out the door with guns blazing. Romeo snipes a grunt of a turret before he can do much damage, while buck and I get in cover behind some crates. I step out from cover and am about to fire, but I stop myself. The jackal has a shield. I roll out of cover and rush at him. A couple of shots from some grunts hit me but don't do considerable damage to my shields. I use the butt of my gun and beat the shield out of the way and smack the jackal across the head. I rush at one grunt while shooting at another. I kick the first grunt hard and he flies through the air over the edge of the building. I turn around and finish off the second grunt. Buck is shooting at a brute at the top of a set off stairs. Romeo aims and takes it out with his sniper. I run up another set of stairs to flank the remaining brutes. They are standing in a line and shooting at buck. I run past the first and attach a plasma grenade to its back, I take my knife in my free hand and slice it across the second ones throat and just as I am about to get the third, it's head explodes. Blood splatters everywhere. The first scrabbles at its back to no avail, and the plasma grenade explodes. I lick the blood from my lips and look down at Romeo, who lowers his sniper.

'Nice shot.' I say.

'Come on guys.' Buck says. 'Mickey says the have a bridge we can use to get to them.'

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Buck and I rush down the stairs as we fire. Romeo takes one out with a headshot. Buck runs at one and takes it out with a rifle butt. I run at another to do the same. I duck its attack and sweep its legs out from underneath with a low kick, and I stab my knife into its neck as it falls backwards. Buck and I run through the sliding doors and leap out of the way as a fuel rod flies past and explodes against the roof, knocking Romeo off his feet. Buck tosses a grenade into the midst of them. The brute, without thinking, jumps to the side away from the grenade and falls off the helipad. I kill a grunt with my assault rifle and buck kills the other.

'_That's_ the bridge!' Romeo gazes at the giant metal beam hanging from a crane above us. At the other end of the beam is another helipad, where a marine is firing a rocket pod at some banshees.

'Go Romeo!' Buck yells as he jumps on the end of the beam and starts running. Romeo jumps up on the beam and I run after him. It's a little weird. Being able to see the ground on either side of you, hundreds of metres down on either side of a metal beam 1 metre across.

'Look out! Banshees!' The three of us break into a sprint. My assault rifle bounces against my back as I run. A banshee flies underneath the beam and it begins rocking back and forward with a sickening creak. I leap forward as a banshee flies across the beam trying g to knock me off. The other two continue running as I get to my feet. The banshee turns and comes back towards me. It fires at me as I run across the beam and flies at me again. I take a plasma grenade and ready myself. I jump as the banshee approaches. I attach the grenade to the top of the craft as I stunt-roll across the top of it and land back on the beam with a flourish and the banshee explodes behind me. Another banshee is on my right, but not heading towards me. It fires its cannons at something. I turn around to see its target, and sprint for the end of the beam. I trip as the beam swings up at the end I am approaching, I hear the wires holding the beam up behind me snap. I run as the beam begins dropping and jump for it. I hit the wall hard and scramble for something to hold onto as I fall. My fingers catch on to something. I hear fighting going on above me. I breathe deeply and pull myself up. I roll over the edge of the building and jump to my feet. I run at a brute from behind, turn around and grab him and flip him over my shoulders. He lands hard and rolls over the edge of the building. I charge up the ramp to the helipad, stabbing a grunt in the face as I pass him on the way up. Romeo and buck are shooting at enemy infantry coming from phantoms and the ramp while mickey is repairing the pelican. Dutch fires his Spartan laser into a group of banshees in the distance. I duck out of the way as a couple of purple blasts from the phantom land behind me.

The battle rages on for some time. Dutch has managed to destroy the last banshee, I stab the last grunt and the last brute falls backwards off the helipad, without a head. We all look around for a sign of hostiles.

'That's it.' I say.

'Well that's good. The pelican is repaired. Done as best I can, I just hope it stays together.' Mickey says as he enters the pelican.

'Phantom! Look out!' An ominous phantom swings around the corner suddenly. It hovers over the helipad and a single black figure drops out.

'Oh crap!' Mickey jumps back out as the brute swings his hammer. The gravity blast from the hammer knocks Romeo and buck to the ground. The brute swings the blade towards Romeo. In a desperate attempt, Romeo throws up his sniper in front of him in defence. The hammer buckles the sniper as the spike stabs into Romeo who yells out hoarsely in pain. The brute tosses the sniper off the roof and roars. I run at him from the side. He swings a massive arm towards me as I stab out with my knife. I feel the bulk knock me back as his arm hits me and I fall to the ground. The knife flies from my hand. It skids towards the edge of the building, spinning around… and drops. I panic. What can I do? My assault rifle won't do a thing. I look around my armour suit for something of use. Dutch shoulder barges the brute, but it regains its balance and hits him away with the bottom of its hammer. Then I notice something interesting. A belt. I am wearing a belt. I had found it with my possessions on the ship and I had put it on with my armour. I quickly fumble with the various pockets. There probably isn't much of use. There isn't much that could fit in a pocket so small. A frag maybe, even a plasma grenade, hell, even maybe a-

My heart skips a beat as my hand closes around a cold metal object. The sheer impossibility of what I had found stunned me. I draw out the small object and hold it in front of me in shock. Mickey tackles the thing to the ground. I gingerly press the small switch. It is amazing, it feels… good, like it's an extension of my arm, like something living, it buzzes with energy. I gaze at the crystalline blade for a second before I remember what is happening. The brute throws mickey off and stands back up. I rush at the brute without a second thought, I feel like I am gliding from foot to foot, sliding across the ground. I move side-to-side quickly as I approach, moving like a shadow. The brute follows me with his eyes. I raise my sword high above me, and stop before I reach him. The brute has his eyes fixated on my sword. Mickey jumps on the brute from behind and stabs it in the face. The brute throws him off and stumbles about clutching at his face with one hand. Dutch tackles it to the floor as buck jumps on it, repeatedly stabbing it with his knife.

'Buck!' I call. I switch off the blade and toss it to buck. He catches it. He turns it on, and stabs it right through the brutes armour into its body. Dutch stands up and attends to Romeo while mickey and buck observe the brute.

'Thanks for that.' Buck tosses my energy sword back to me. Everybody turns towards Romeo as he bursts into a fit of coughing.

'Aww shit… my lungs…' He breathes huskily.

'Quiet Romeo, don't say anything.' Buck takes a canister from him belt and places the nozzle in the wound. The canister makes a hissing sound as bio-foam fills the wound. Buck holds Romeo by the shoulder as Romeo stands.

'It's ok… I'm alright…' Romeo says as he holds up a hand. Buck lets go as Romeo gains his balance.

'Any news yet on the rookie or dare?' Mickey asks. Buck sighs.

'Negative. We found evidence of Dare, but nothing about the rookie.'

'Damn… poor kid… well what are we doing now then?'

'I hate to say this, but we have to get out of this place. This mission is a failure and we can't stay here.' I sense a bit of hurt in his eyes. I shake my head.

'I haven't come all this way to leave people behind.' I say. Buck looks at me sadly.

'Hey, I know you have feelings for victoria, I can tell, but so do I and I know that we have to go. We can't stay here. We'll get killed.' I place both feet firmly on the ground.

'I'm not going to leave.' I say as the others jump in the pelican. I pick up the gravity hammer from the dead brute and head back towards the building. 'I've been in worse situations than this.'

'And you got killed.' Romeo added. 'You stay here, you're going to die.' I grunt.

'Well in that case, I'll see you in hell.'

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The sun has set by the time I reach the bottom of the tower. The streets are quiet. And dark. There is no sound about me but the beating of my own heart. I hold the gravity hammer across my lap. _What am I going to do now? I have to find victoria, and the rookie, but where? God, if you are out there somewhere, please give me something._ A single shot ring overhead and hits the building behind me, shattering a pane of glass in a shower of glittering fragments. I jump to my feet and raise the hammer, searching for where the shot came from. It steps out from around the corner and walks towards me slowly; his gun hangs at his side. He raises one hand in greeting as he approaches.

'You…' I mutter, unable to believe this stroke of luck. 'You're the rookie…' he nods as he approaches me. He walks right past me. I turn around to see where he is going. He stands behind me and looks up. I follow his gaze up to the power lines. A buckled thing is hanging from the wire. He grabs a stick from the ground and knocks it down. He picks it up and shows it to me.

'Romeo…' I say quietly as I look at the twisted weapon. The rookie tries in vain to unbend it, and tosses it aside. 'The others have left. I stayed, to look for you. To look for victoria.' The rookie looks down at his feet for a second with a murmur, then back up at me. I sigh. 'I don't suppose you know where she is, do you?' I stare at the rookie in surprise. 'You know where she is?' He nods again. He turns around and starts walking; I follow behind the silent marine.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The rookie pushes himself up against the wall. He quickly peeps around the corner. He steps out and fires twice with his pistol, then motions for me to follow. I follow around the corner and see two dead grunts lying on the ground. The tunnel carries on further and around a corner. The area ahead of us is empty of hostiles. We run downhill along the tunnel. The rookie peeks around the corner again and quickly pulls back. He holds up two fingers and points around the corner, then makes a shushing motion. I draw my knife and nod my head in understanding. He holds up three fingers, then two, one…

We run around the corner towards the two oblivious brutes. One hears us and turns around. I slap my hand across his mouth and stab my knife into his stomach repeatedly. He makes a few stifled _mmmpff_ sounds, and then drops dead. We run to the end of this tunnel. I wait at the corner this time. I peek around the corner again, and jump back as a grunt opens fire with a needler. I look to my right. The rookie is gone. I grit my teeth and blind fire my assault rifle around the corner. A few spikes and plasma rounds fly past. Brutes.

'Where are you?' I shout out over my shoulder. The rookie emerges, carrying a large weapon. He approaches the corner and swings around it, scorching the covenant soldiers with a searing cone of flames. I can see the flames dancing in the reflection of his visor. 'Nice toy.' I say. He continues walking around the corner. A brute jumps out from around another corner and is fried instantly by the flamethrower. I run ahead of the rookie. A brute jumps around from the corner in front of me. I swing the butt of my rifle up and catch it in the chin, then switch it around and fire a couple of rounds through his chin into his head. I turn around to see what is taking the rookie so long. He enters through a door behind be. I check for hostiles and run back to follow him.

I enter a small hallway with a metal door at the end. The rookie bends down and picks up a small flashing device, then looks at the door, then back at me. I approach the door ahead of him, and without thinking, knock on it. The door swings open immediately. I freeze as I find myself looking down a gun barrel. Never have I been so happy to have a gun pointed in my face.

'Ajay?' Victoria lowers her gun.

'In the flesh.' I say with a warm smile.

'How did you find me here? Where is everybody else?'

'The rookie picked up your beacon you dropped.' I say as I jerk my thumb over my shoulder. 'The others have decided upon a tactical retreat.'

'So the left?' Victoria asks, her tone shows her heart sinking suddenly. I nod.

'It's just us now.' Victoria nods slightly. She looks up, and switches her gaze from me to the rookie.

'Well we have to go on,' I look at her strangely.

'What? Go on where? We have to get out of here.'

'You forgot about our mission.'

'Our mission? Our mission failed hours ago didn't it.' Victoria shakes her head.

'We need to get to the superintendent. He could shed some light on this situation.' I sigh and raise my weapon.

'All right then, let's go.'

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The door slides open as we approach.

'This is the hive.' Victoria whispers.

'Crap, that means buggers.' She nods.

'Keep a look out.' We continue forth. The area in made up of various interconnecting metal walkways around weird structures. Some of the points where they meet have ladders going down. We quietly creep along the walkway, it creaks slightly.

'Left here.' Victoria whispers back to me. I follow her around the corner and stop as I see her frozen. There is a little figure in front of us, it is crouched over something, looking away from us. Victoria takes out her knife and quietly sneaks up behind it for a silent kill. I watch in anticipation as she approaches slowly, with every step I think it will turn around and see us.

It does. The thing flies up into the air and emits an ear-splitting screech, which is especially damaging to my ears. Within seconds a swarm of buggers flies out of the darkness straight towards us, guns blazing. I jump to the floor as we are caught in the crossfire as they fly about shooting. I blindly fire at them, but it does little. A group of the buggers bursts into flames as the rookie fires. They collide into others in their confusion and set them alight, and drop dead to the ground. I fire blindly into the air above me as the cone of fire swings above me, frying the little bastards in a few seconds. The cone of fire eventually dies out. I get back up on my feet and compose myself.

'Nice job there.' Victoria says with a smirk. I grunt dismissively.

'Whatever. I didn't have my shotgun anyway; if I did I could have handled it.'

'If you say so, big bad Spartan.'

'You better believe it baby.' I say with an outrageous wink. Victoria disregards me and hurries on ahead, I follow behind as the rookie jogs behind while lugging about the heavy flamethrower. Victoria types something into a keypad beside a large pair of double doors. I hear a couple of grunts from beyond the door as it begins to open.

A brute emerges in the gap between the doors and begins firing with his spiker. A couple of rounds hit me but are deflected by my shields. Another brute emerges as the door opens further. I take the pin from a frag and run towards the one on the right. I toss the grenade between its legs and continue towards him. I jump towards him and spin myself 180 degrees and kick out with my right foot. The brute is propelled backwards into the explosion of the frag grenade. The other brute stumbles about as he burns. Victoria takes her pistol and fires it into its face at point blank range.

'Come on, let's get in and out as fast as we can.' Victoria leads us around the corner and I hear shouting..

'Stupid door! Open up now!' There is a familiar sound of a gravity discharge. I stop the rookie and take the gravity hammer from my back and hold it out to him.

'Trust me, you don't want to be lugging around that heavy thing with a brute chieftain charging at you.' He nods and puts down the flamethrower and takes the hammer. The three of us take a look around the corner of the box we are hiding behind. Three of them. One chieftain. Two regulars.

'We need to get rid of the regulars first.' I tell the other two. 'Take them out before they know we're here and that'll make taking out the chieftain easier.' I hold up my last frag grenade to show the others. 'One second cook off on me, then throw.' The others take out their frags. 'Three, two, one…' We pull out our pins. We quickly exchange rapid glances for a second, then throw. I step out from the pillar with my energy sword as I hear the grenades go off. The chieftain wastes no time and turns around to charge at us. I dive out of the he leaps towards me. The gravity discharge knocks me a few feet away. The others step back as he swings his hammer in an arc around him. The rookie lands a solid blow with his hammer when the brute is off balance, but the brute still has his overshield active. Victoria backs up as she fires with her pistol. I run at the brute from behind as he raises the hammer back over his head. I grab the hammer's handle in one hand and a plasma grenade in the other. I stick the plasma grenade to the handle, and then pull the hammer down quickly. The other side of the plasma grenade sticks to the brutes back, effectively sticking the hammer to its back. The brute pulls as hard as he can, but the grenade lets out a high pitch whine and explodes in a blue flash. The brute is knocked back by a solid blow from the rookie. As it gets up I charge towards it. I jump at it feet first and lash out with both legs in a kamikaze-jumping kick. Both of my feet hit it hard in the stomach, sending it stumbling backwards towards the edge of the vast chasm around us. It waves its arms desperately as it nears the edge, and manages to regain it's balance. I act quickly. I pull my knife from its sheath and twirl it in my fingers to get to feel the weight of it. I grab it by the blade and take aim.

'Please let this work.' I whisper to myself. I draw the knife back, and toss it. I see the knife twirling through the air. It seems to be moving so slowly. As if it were some perfect, incredible dream come true, the knife blade manages to somehow hit the brute in the face. The brute clutches at its face and falls backwards into the chasm. It's angry and frenzied cry echoes in the shaft around us, and eventually dies out. I hear somebody say something behind me. I turn and look at the source of the sound.

'Did you say something?' I ask the rookie with a puzzled expression. He shakes his head. Victoria looks at him with a slight smile.

'Come on, in here.' Victoria heads over to the doors beside the dead brutes. She types a number combination into the keypad. 'Follow my lead, and don't shoot anything.' The door hisses as it begins to open. The room inside is dark. There is a large computer screen on the opposite wall from me. Surrounded my lots more computer screens on the other walls. Victoria walks in first and looks around the room for something. The rookie and I follow. There is a sharp sound in one corner. I instantly swivel towards the source of the noise with my gun raised. Victoria make a motion with her hand and I lower my gun.

'It's ok, you can come out.' Victoria says softly. There is a small flicker of movement, then the thing slowly floats out from behind a computer screen.

'One of these?' I ask her, pointing at the floating blue thing in front of me.

'It's merged itself with the superintendent. It could know something about what the covenant are after.' I make an annoyed grunt.

'Can't we quit the shit with the "knowledge is power" thing? I honestly don't need to know what religious artefact those bastards are after. I would rather find some super-ultimate laser cannon that can destroy the covenant super carrier in one shot.' Victoria looks at me with a sceptical gaze.

'You know about their artefacts?' She asks quizzically. I shrug.

'Hell, do i. why the fuck do you think they attacked reach? I carried the god-damn thing to the pillar of autumn myself, and died for it.' Victoria gives me a concerned look. 'I'm sorry, it's just, all those people, those marines, died for this?' I point at the engineer Victoria sighs.

'War is a bitch.' I suddenly turn quiet. Emile. 'Come on Ajay, let's get out of here.'

I can feel my heart pounding in my chest. I breathe quietly through my nose as I listen keenly to the approaching noise. So many variables. So many possible situations. What was it? It could simply be a stray brute who lost his way, a confused grunt wandering about, lost like a mere cub, it could be another chieftain, hell-bent on vengeance for his fallen brethren. Hell, it could even be-

'Buck!' I switch off my energy sword and jump out from behind my hiding spot. I dive towards him and send him crashing to the ground and land sitting on top of him.

'_Bddiiish!'_ I mimic stabbing him with my extinguished energy sword as he struggles beneath me.

'Ajay what the hell are you doing?' He demands . I grin widely at him.

'I'm sorry to tell you this buck, but you're dead.' I inform him, still smiling and cocking my head to the side. Probably works better without a helmet. Cuteness factor decreased by 3. I probably look crazy now… Buck simply grunts and pushes me. I let go of him and he stands up.

'Like elite is randomly going to jump out at me from nowhere.' He mutters.

'You'd be surprised.' I say in a very serious tone. I hear the sound of victoria approaching from behind.

'Buck, I thought you had left.' She says unsurely. He shrugs.

'Well, I came back.' He says. He suddenly jerks his assault rifle upwards. I lash out before he can fire and snatch the rifle from his hands. I spin it upside down in my hands, slide one down quickly and remove the clip, spin it again and grab the stock. I press a button and slide the stock in and out and pull it apart. I then grab the top of the gun and with a few twists and clicks I pull out half the firing mechanism from the rifle. The whole process is complete in a second and a half. I hold the pieces out in front of him.

'No.' I say sternly.

'It's ok Buck, it's on our side.' Victoria tells him as the engineer floats out from its hiding spot. Buck looks back and forth between me, victoria and the engineer, then back at me.

'So why did you have to pull my gun apart then?' He asks with an annoyed tone.

'Because I'm a show-off.' I tell him with a grin and hand the pieces to him. He takes the pieces and frustratedly begins reassembling the weapon.

'Well if this is what we came for, I suppose now is the time to get out, right?' I ask. Victoria nods her head.

'Any ideas buck?' she asks.

'Actually yes.' He says. 'Please don't ask me how- it's a long story, but the rest of the guys and I have managed to commandeer a phantom. We can use that to get out of the city.'

'Sweet, what are we waiting for then?' I say. The four of us stand in an awkward silence. 'So… are we going now?' I ask. Buck suddenly shakes his head quickly.

'Oh, yeah, sorry, yeah, let's go…and… get out of here.' He turns around and takes half a step, and turns around unsurely, us three begin following and he continues.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

My breathing has become heavy now. A red bar flashes incessantly at the top of my visor in an annoying way. I hug my arms close to my body as an ill-meaning fusillade of plasma rounds and spikes chip and scorch the thin column I am hiding behind. I clench my teeth in frustration as I reach one trembling hand to my pistol. Buck leans out from behind his cover and fires his assault rifle and ducks back.

'I…' I mutter under my breathe as I load my pistol.

'FUCKING…' I yell as I lift my pistol.

'HATE…' I spin around the corner of my cover and take aim.

'JACKALS!' I furiously fire away at a couple of jackals on top of the covenant hover-tower. The front of the small weapon jolts upwards as I fire. I vaguely notice the plumes of blood erupting from the heads of my fallen foes as I charge. I toss a frag with a loud yell and dive to the ground behind some random object. I dive out into a roll as the frag goes off and run into the fray, now with fully charged shields. I tackle a brute while he is busy running from the explosion of my frag, wrap my legs around his waist and stick my energy sword through his abdomen. I take the assault rifle from my back in my free hand and turn the dead brute towards the remaining bulk. I stick the assault rifle around my meatbag and open fire. The rookie runs at the brutes from behind while buck covers. He jumps into the air as he approaches and swings it down with an over-extravagant flourish. The brutes are scattered in various directions around the point of impact, but are finished off by a few crushing blows from the rookie. I turn off my energy sword and the brute crumples to the ground.

'What was all that about?' Buck asks as he approaches me. I throw a dirty look at the hover tower containing the two dead jackals.

'I hate being sniped.' I say. Victoria comes around the corner from behind us, followed by the engineer, who floats a couple of feet from the ground.

'Well, this should be as good a location as any.' Buck says as he reaches one hand up to his comm unit. 'Hey mickey, you there? Alright. We got dare and the others, where are you?' he taps his foot on the ground impatiently. 'Well come over here, we're ready.' Buck suddenly stops tapping his foot. 'What do you- what? Everywhere? You have got to be shitting me! You can't come in l- crap! All right then, where?.. Where the fuck is that? Well I know that, but how do I get there? Oh very funny mickey, very funny. You expect us to walk while you sit around on your fat ass in your nice cosy phantom? Of course it doesn't have air con- just tell us how to get there!' I can imagine buck's angry red face under his visor. 'Ok then. Ok. We'll meet you there then.' Buck takes his hand away from his helmet with a sigh.

'All right, mickey says the covvies have AA everywhere, but he can make a landing at a point a couple K's west of here. There is a highway to the south, goes all the way to our destination. Mickey also reckons there could be some cars we could use.' I smile and throw my hand in the air.

'Yeah! ROAD TRIP!'

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Victoria climbs onto the garbage truck and opens a hatch on top.

'Are you sure this thing is a garbage truck?' I ask as I stare at the thing in awe. 'It looks more like a tank had sex with a steamroller and this thing popped out.' The engineer floats down into the hatch and it closes. Buck and I approach a convenient warthog on the other side of the road.

'All right kid, you drive, I'll use the turret.' I shake my head.

'How about you drive and I use the turret?' Buck looks at me.

'Why? You aren't a good driver?' I shake my head again.

'No. I don't have my driver's licence.' Buck stares at me, probably with a dumfounded look. To make it final, I jump on the back of the warthog and jump into the chaingun turret. The rookie jumps in the driver seat.

'You can drive?' buck asks. The silent marine shrugs. 'All right then.' Buck jumps into the passenger seat. 'Keep moving at victoria's speed. If we see covvies, speed ahead and we'll take them out.

Understood?' The rookie waves his hand dismissively and nods, putting both hands on the wheel, lifts one foot up and then slams it down. The front of the warthog lifts for a second as we shoot forward. I wish I had removed my helmet first so I could feel the wind on my fur. The world suddenly twists sideways as the rookie puts us into a slide, and then accelerates again, going back towards the garbage truck. The first few minutes of the journey go by without event. We slowly cruise along beside the garbage truck. I sit back in my gunner's seat and take in the view to the south. The evening sky is illuminated with crimson rays of light that seem to radiate across the horizon and dance across the rippling distant seas as-

'Nice sunset, eh Ajay?' Victoria's voice comes across my comm unit.

'Yeah, pretty nice.' I say faintly.

'I never took you for the type who enjoys sunsets Ajay.' She says.

'The sun a great thing victoria.' I say dreamily. 'A great force. A primal being. It exists solely to serve man and asks nothing in return. It is why we survive. A sentinel for humanity. But what shall happen when it dies? Will there be another to sustain us? Do we collectively have the courage light the fires required to save ourselves, or shall darkness overcome us?' I stop speaking and begin thinking deeply.

'Ajay, don't talk like that. There will always be others. The sun is an inspiration, the rest will strive to create a new sun…' victoria tells me quietly. 'Those people you saved on reach. They remember you. They know what you did. You do not stand alone. You inspired a generation.' She pauses for a second. 'A sun goes out with a bang. You just came back, that's all. There are more suns out there Ajay. You aren't alone.' I smile a little.

'Thanks victoria.' I whisper as the comm unit turns off.

'That was pretty deep kid.' Buck says from the front.

'Yeah, well don't get used to it.' I say as we approach the huge door blocking the road. It's opening mechanisms begin to whirr as it slides down. I see the top of the familiar purple covenant structure and give a whistle. 'Covvies ahead! Fuel rods!' The rookie backs up as the door slides down further, and floors it as soon as it is fully open.

I swivel the chaingun around at the tower and press down on the trigger. I track the tower as the barrel spins and whines. A hail of bullets spit out of the end of the barrel and slice through the enemy ranks on the tower. I rotate the turret to the left as we go into a skid and assail a group of brutes as they fire at our previous position. I bounce in my seat as we hit a couple of bumps and sweep another group of hostiles as the rookie swerves around a truck in the middle of the road. The rookie whips the tail of the warthog around and slams it into a brute, knocking its limp body through the air. He drives into the small, dark tunnel section as the door begin to open again. All of a sudden buck jumps out of the warthog and runs back.

'Wait there.' He says. He jumps back in the warthog a few second later, carrying a large metal object.

'Whoa, nice find.' i say, admiring the rocket launcher. 'Make sure you save the ammo for something worthwhile.'

'Don't worry, I won't waste it.' He assures me. I smile and look back up at the opening in the door, and freeze. Being the highest up, I am the only one who can see over the slowly opening door.

'Um, buck? I think I found something worthwhile.'

'What is it?' He asks, then freezes when he sees what I see.

'How much ammo is In that thing?' I ask very slowly.

'Not enough.' Buck says slowly, the fear is evident in his voice.

'Tory, we have a situation here!' I yell into my comm. It crackles to life.

'What kind of situation?' She asks.

'Scarab.'

'You have to be kidding me.' All kinds of thing are running through my head. Anger, frustration…hope? I see myself, I am kneeling on the ground, crying. What is this? _'Just one shot… how?' he cries. Then, there is a body, blue armour, prosthetic arm… Kat. Just one shot. Just one shot…_

I find myself suddenly awake again, holding a pistol and emptying the clip out, all except for one. Just one bullet.

'Well? Any ideas Ajay?' Buck asks in a wavering voice.

'Get me close to that scarab.' My voice comes out in an unfamiliar authoritive tone. Wait, did I actually say that? Where did those words come from? I involuntarily take my energy sword in one hand, with my pistol in the other.

'Are you crazy? What are you going to do?' Buck protests.

'Do it!' I tell him in a low tone. Why am I saying all this? I try to sit put my gun away, but nothing happens. The warthog leaps forwards out of the tunnel at full speed. I jump out of my turret seat and climb over the top of the warthog and land on the front of it, standing somehow with incredible balance. How am I doing this? Is this physically possible? The scarab lets out an ear splitting screech as it fires its enormous assault cannon. The rookie swerves violently to the right as the beam slams into the ground. The impact of the blast sends the warthog up on two wheels, but I still stand on it. I suddenly realise with shock, I have no control of my body. It seems to be moving on its own. The warthog lands back with a crash on its other two wheels. I can see the green beam following us over my head. I put my pistol away and reach into my belt again. I am surprised to find myself holding a second energy sword.

'Get me near the side of the tunnel.' I order. The rookie swerves to the right further and goes into a skid near the wall. I jump out and stab into the wall with my energy swords. The rookie speeds away and goes into the tunnel under the scarab to avoid its fire. I take one sword out, pull myself up and stick the sword in further up. I begin scaling the wall at rapid speed_. What am I going to accomplish by doing this?_

'You'll see.' I say with a small grin. _Wait, did I just talk to myself_? 'In a sense, yes Ajay, you did.' _What? Who are you?_ 'Don't be silly. I am you.' I pull myself up onto the top of the tunnel and look up at the towering scarab.

'Time to die traitors.' I say. I run towards the leg of the scarab at full speed. I run up the leg of it and sink my swords into it and begin scaling it. I jump onto the top and jump onto the platform around the edge as a brute on a mounted turret raises his gun. I put away my energy swords and i dive at it under its fire. I jump to my feet in front of it. I jump and kick out with my right foot, twist around in mid-air and kick with my left foot. I land facing away and spin around, hitting it in the chin with an uppercut. I draw both swords and jump up in the air. I flip once and bring the swords down on its back, slicing it. I run into the interior of the scarab. I impale a brute who jumps at me from the left and run to the right. In front of me is a glowing blue object, energy flickers about inside it like a tiny storm. I take out the pistol. _Trial of life. One shot._ I feel my grip tighten on the trigger, now in control, and take aim.

'One shot.' I say to myself. 'one shot.' The gun jerks backwards with recoil as I fire. I see Kat, falling down; the jackal that shot her…The blue thing explodes with a blue flash. An alarm suddenly cuts the air. I feel myself lose control again as I turn and run. I run right as a brute jumps out in front of me. I drop my shoulder and hit at full speed. The two of us fly off the walkway around the scarab and go rumbling towards the ground. We spin in an out of control as we fall to the ground. I grab the brute by the shoulder and twist him around. I have no idea what is happening. Then we hit.

Clouds gently roll across the sky, moving ever so slowly. I rub my aching head with a groan and stand up, wobbling slightly. I look underneath me and find the crushed body of a brute.

'Well, whoever the hell you are, you're pretty fucking badass.' I say to myself with a smile. _Do not expect any more help human_. I disregard the comment. Pieces of dead scarab are scattered around the area. I take the energy swords from my belt and look down at the highway beneath me. 'Um… don't suppose you could do that again? Just to make things a lot quicker.' _This is one exception, but only because I must leave this place._ I jump off the edge and go into a brief free-fall. I take my swords and stab them into the wall as I near the bottom. I gradually slow as I get lower and then jump onto the ground, extinguishing my energy swords. The garbage truck approaches the tunnel from the opposite end from me. The warthog approaches from the tunnel and stops short of me.

'What happened?' buck asks. I shrug.

'I'm not actually sure myself.' I say. The doors begin to whirr in a familiar way as they open. I don't expect there to be much opposition. Covvies probably thought the scarab could handle everything we could throw at it. The comm unit crackles to life in my ear.

'There should be an off ramp nearby, that's where we are heading.' Victoria says to us. I nod and put one hand on the back of the warthog and lift myself up into the turret seat as the vehicle lurches forward. The nest stretch of highway is empty. Upside-down cars are lying strewn across the road. No signs of life. There is an off ramp between two lanes and we cruise towards it. The rookie eases off on the accelerator as we gently roll down the ramp. We come to a stop at the bottom of the dim tunnel and wait for the garbage truck. The hatch on top flicks open as victoria jumps out, followed by the engineer. Victoria looks out of the tunnel at a large building with a courtyard/plaza/whatever in front of it. Buck raises his hand to his helmet.

'Mickey, where are you? What? Seriously? Dammit. Ok, we're waiting for you…what? How many? Shit, ok, we'll hold up here, get here as fast as you can!' he drops his hand. 'ok, we have phantoms inbound. The covvies are putting up a fight. We'll hold up in that building.' Buck points and begins running. We check the engineer is following and go after him.

I hear the familiar sound of a phantom approaching as I scramble up the steps. I notice a balcony section higher up the building.

'Buck! Get up on that balcony, you can provide fire support from there, and when something big comes, you have the rocket launcher.' Buck detaches from the group and heads for a flight of stairs to the left. 'Victoria, you head inside and stay with the engineer. Me and the rookie will stand guard outside the door.' In front of the front door is a support column that holds the balcony up. At the bottom of it is a small wall, positioned perfectly for cover. I press back against the wall, the rookie goes against the opposite side. I refill my clip and slap it back into my assault rifle, as does the rookie. 'All right, it us against them.' I say looking over at him. 'Let's leave them with something to remember us by.' I say with a smile. He nods. We both look around our cover as we see a phantom hovering above the highway. I step back into cover and look back at the rookie. 'You ready?'

'Let's kick ass.' I look around our cover again, then quickly double take, looking at him.

'Did you just say something?' I ask. He nods.

'Actions often speak louder than words. These words are powerful. Meaningful. They represent the brotherhood only we can understand in times of war, what we feel between one another. The bond we earn through blood. 'He says in a strong, deep voice. 'The question is, are they ready for us?' we stand silently looking at each other. I smile and nod. He holds out one hand to me. I look at it, and then back at him. I grab his hand and raise our hands up to they are between our faces. We squeeze them tightly together.

'Well spoken bro.' We press ourselves back against the wall. 'Let's go.'

I spin around the corner of the wall and open fire with my assault rifle. The majority of the rounds hit the brute in the head, it eventually falls. It sweep the spray across a couple of grunts as they fire plasma blasts at me. I duck back as the plasma approaches and reload. I spin back around and line up a brute, but it's quickly killed by a high-calibre round from above. Buck found another toy. I fire my rifle in bursts at a distant brute, the rookie helps and we take it out. Another two phantoms are hovering above the highway.

'Heads up, chieftains and hunters!' Buck calls from above.

'Take the chieftain first! Before he puts up his overshields!' I call back up to him.

'Shit! More phantoms! Landing to our left and right!' he calls down.

'Focus on the hunters and chieftain!' I yell. I carefully watch the off ramp exit, even while the phantoms land to the left and right. The chieftain is leading the charge. He jumps over the barriers and land on his front. It takes me a while to realise he is dead. The trail from the sniper round is gone now.

'Shit! Nice shot buck!' I yell up to him.

'That wasn't me!' the phantom on the left hovers across the huge advancing force of hunters and brutes. Romeo stands inside with his sniper raised, and Dutch beside him. I step out and fire my assault rifle; I switch between targets because there are so many of them. I jump back into cover as the horde begins firing. The intense barrage of plasma balls and spikes hitting and ricocheting off our cover and the wall beside me is incredible; it's literally like a sideways hailstorm of plasma. I hear an explosion somewhere and the shooting stops.

'I need some held here! They're flanking me!' Buck calls down.

'Rookie, stay here!' I say to him. I take a deep breath and sprint out of cover with my energy sword in one hand and my assault rifle in the other. I duck under a barrage of enemy fire as I run for a flight of steps. I turn left and start up the steps leading to the top. But I notice something in front of me, a sort of blur… I lash out with my sword and stab it right through the thing. A brute appears before me and collapses. I continue up the steps and a spiker fires at me from nowhere. The brute gets a good few rounds In before I gun him down. Buck is hiding behind cover as invisible brutes fire at him from the other set of steps. I run and jump up onto the cover and jump over it. I fire my assault rifle one-handed at a brute as I soar through the air towards a second. I stab it as I land with one foot on its shoulder. I fall down and tumble down a couple of steps before I get back on my feet. I run back up the stairs at the last brute. The brute suddenly flies backwards towards me. I duck and stab my sword through it as it flies over my head. Buck stands at the top of the stairs, aiming his rocket launcher at the horde. I stand beside him and look down on the mass. The scene before me is intense. There is a huge horde of covenant in the centre of the plaza, brutes, four hunters and a chieftain, and a ghost. A red laser rains down from the phantom and hits a hunter, killing it and some nearby enemies. Buck fires a rocket down into the midst of the horde. It seems like we are beginning to win now. I fire my assault rifle randomly at the group and toss a grenade. A group of hostiles breaks away and charges the building. Buck fires his rocket launcher into them and kills half of them. I hear the rookies gravity hammer go off and smile. We are winning.

Then shit hits the fan. Another horde comes charging out from the off-ramp. Three chieftains, half-a dozen hunters and a hell of a lot of brutes. A couple of wraiths begin firing from the highway. Buck and I jump out of the way as the plasma mortars land near us. Buck and I try our best to keep the horde away from the building, but there are just too many. Then something strange happens. I grimace as three more phantoms hover over the plaza, but then I am confused. The phantom begins firing at the brutes.

'Reinforcements!' I yell happily, but then my heart sinks. The phantoms door open, and out come elites. Zealots. With swords. The elite swarm cuts through the brute horde with ease, like a cloud of flying razors. They charge through the middle of the horde and leave only death in their wake. I run inside the building and jump down to the first floor.

'Ajay what's going on out there?' Victoria demands. I breath heavily as I try to come to terms with the situation.

'Elites. Heaps of them. With swords.' I run outside and stand beside the rookie. He simply stands there and watches in surprise. The battle is a huge mass of black with flashes of blue. The two of us stand and watch in awe. The brutes don't stand a chance. Within a couple of minutes the battle is over. Everybody is evidently out of ammo. Dutch's Spartan laser is out, Romeo has stopped firing, and so has Buck. Mickey could fire the gun on the phantom, but there would be no point. There are just too many. I suddenly find myself walking out into the plaza towards the elites. They all stand still and watch me. _Why aren't they attacking me?_ A black and red elite approaches me from the group, he is the leader clearly. He speaks in a low but authoritive voice.

'Kalo-Raasei. Good to see you live.' He says. _What?_

'It's average to see you too Mag-Kreimlei.' I tell him. _Who is Mag-Kreimlei?_

'We feared you were dead. How foolish of us.'

'How foolish indeed.' _What are you doing? Who is this? Who are you?_ I laugh a little.

'Is there something you find funny Raasei? The elite demands.

'The naïve Spartan is confused Kreimlei. I find it amusing.' I say.

'Hey what are you doing?' Buck yells from behind me.

'Ajay! What is going on here?' Victoria cries out. The elite snarls at them, but I raise a hand and shake my head.

'Leave the marines. They have though hard for this pitiful city. I say, let them enjoy their victory.' I say, 'for now, anyway.' I add. The elite grunts.

'If you say so. I trust you have completed the mission?'

'Of course Kreimlin.' He nods.

'Then you are ready to leave then?' I nod.

'Let us leave this planet.' I say. The elites move aside as the leader and I move towards the gravity lift projected from the phantom. I ignore the yells and protests of the marines behind me and enter the gravity lift. Next destination: Sangheilios.

I can see the huge planet out the porthole thing in the side of the phantom. My home._ Your home!_ Quiet you idiot. _What is going on here? I don't understand this! Who are you? Who am i? Just give me something!_ Well I suppose I owe you that much at least. What do you remember of your childhood Ajay? _I remember all of it. Jamie, my brother, my mum, dad, going too school, what of it?_ It was all fake. _ No it wasn't! I remember it!_ No! You don't! You are wrong! _Well what then? Tell me something!_ Fine then. You want something? You are a sangheili. I am a sangheili. We are sangheili. You were born a sangheili. Genetically engineered to look like a canine. _That is bullshit! _ We retrieved the memories of a canine prisoner and implanted them into you. You spent the first fifteen years of your life on Sangheilios! _ I lived in the States! _The prisoner lived in the states! The first fifteen years of your life were the memories of a prisoner! You lived on Sangheilios! You trained on Sangheilios! I am that part of you! You are a different personality created when you were sent to earth as a spy! _ I am not a spy!_ But I am! I have been spying on the humans for years now! That was my mission. To lie semi-dormant in your subconscious you idiot! I grin to myself evilly. You are such a fool. _This is not right._ _How can this be possible? I am a spy? Most of my life wasn't real?_ You were put into the academy when you arrived on earth. Your earliest real memories are the ones that started there. _No way. This is bullshit._ Fine, I will prove it to you then. I sit back in the corner and close my eyes, and slowly, eventually fall asleep…

_I look up at the tall figure standing before me, clad in white armour._

'_What is it you require uncle?' I ask respectfully. He motions towards a young elite standing beside a fully grown one._

'_You must prove your worth Kalo-Raasei.' He tells me. This one claims greater skill and greatly dishonours your name. You now must fight in mortal combat to restore your honour.' He crouches down beside me._

'_I shall reclaim my honour uncle! I shall destroy this Cretan for his disrespect!' I tell him with a salute. He grins back at me._

'_Good child. Make me proud.' Many adults gather about us, they cheer us and yell. The young elite snarls at me._

'_I shall kill you furry one.' He hisses. I motion with my hand._

'_I fear not such Curs.' I say as a chorus of noise and yells erupts around me. The elite snarls again and unsheathes his claws. I do so also, they are much longer than the claws of a usual fox. I crouch down and stand on all fours and growl. He rushes at me. I wait. Wait until the opponent in close. I think. I plan. I am not brute. I am sangheili. I dive at the small elite and tackle him to the ground. I slash at him with my claws and jump off him. I wait for him to stand._

'_I shall not allow such filth to strike me.' I say with a vicious grin. He runs at me again. I run back and grab his arms. I kick out with my foot and hit him in the stomach. I release one arm and uppercut him, hitting him in the chin and continuing my relentless assault. I spin around, slashing him, I jump kick him, punch at him furiously. I jump backwards and perform a backflip. I charge at the dazed figure. I spin around and kick him in the head with a roundhouse. The elite hits the ground. I pounce on him and pin his arms with my legs. The adults are shouting. 'Kill him!' they say. 'Finish him!' I retract all my claws but one, and lower it to the elites arm. The crowd watches silently as I work. I finish. I get off the elite and return to my uncle as the elite clutches at his arm. The elites uncle runs over to him._

'_Move your hand!' The elite demands as he pulls the young one's hand away. The crowd gasps as the hand is moved away._

_The mark of shame adorns his arm, bloody and red…_

I fought a child?_ Yes, we did._

_Then, there was my mission._

_I creep silently along the empty corridors. I hold the stolen key card in one hand. I approach a door on my right and place the key card in the slot. The door clicks, and with a quick glance about, I enter. I dash over to the computer screen on the far side of the room. I place my hand on the computer screen. The screen glows brightly as electricity streams from the computer to my hand. I instantly find my mind full of knowledge, battle plans, troop movements and other data. I turn the computer off quickly and make a hasty retreat out the door. I run back along the dark corridors, evading the guards, and return to my bed, where a female fox lies naked on the covers._

Wait, this was only a few days ago!_ Exactly. I stole your precious information without you even knowing. _You bastard!_ Oh, and you know how the humans said they rebuilt you? That was a lie. The COVENANT rebuilt you. Their technology keeps you alive. Oh, and by the way, between reach and now, there was another little extra credit mission I went on…_

_I see the falcon flying in front of us, at a lower altitude. We speed up as we get nearer. The radio crackles to life._

'_This is Charlie-fiddle-foxtrot, you are on an unscheduled flight course, please provide identification.' The elite flying the falcon makes no response as he looks back at me. We fly closer to the falcon as I load my pistol._

'_Please provide identification or we will shoot.' The elite pilots the falcon directly above the other falcon. I take a breath, and jump out. I fall twenty metres and land on top of the falcon._

'_What the hell was that?' I grab the edge of the falcon and swing down so I am hanging from the roof. I grab the surprised marine on the turret around the neck with my feet. I twist my legs violently, snapping his neck, and I quickly pull him over the edge, sending the body tumbling into the water beneath me. I draw my knife in one hand as the marine on the other turret gets up and goes for his gun. I flick my knife. It flies towards him and sticks into his head, he stumbles backwards and trips, falling into the water below. I drop into the falcon and hear an angry call from the pilot. I raise my pistol and shoot him in the head. The falcon quickly begins dropping. I turn to the last marine in the falcon. He sits calmly and stares at me._

'_Six?' _No. No! No you're lying! This is bullshit! This did not happen! Not him! NO! _The figure pulls off his helmet. 'Six, what has happened to you?' Jun asks. I hold my pistol up to his forehead._

'_Just tying up loose ends.'_

[/]

'Raasei, wake up.' I open my eyes to see the Kreimlei. 'We are here.' I step out of the ship after Kreimlei. All sorts of strange structures fill the spaceport, all of elite origin. I remove my helmet and put it under one arm. 'You may want to alter yourself.' I nod in agreement. I feel my skin begin tingling all over. It starts getting colder and makes cracking sounds. After about half a minute it stops. I run my hand over my now-scaly muzzle. Kreimlei grunts. 'Well you at least look half sangheili now. Come. Res-Daigee will want to see you now. He begins heading off and I follow.

[/]

An Elite wearing white armour stands at a table facing away from me. He is conversing with a group of other elites in similar armour. One of the elites speaks up.

'Who is this? A Field Marshall and some other strange creature.'

'Tell them to leave.' Says the elite facing away. I shrug.

'If you say so Res-Daigee.' His head turns up at my voice and he quickly turns around to look at me in surprise.

'Took a little longer than expected.' I say.

'You have returned Raasei. We thought you were dead.' He says, pleased.

'Yes yes, how naïve of you.' I say dismissively.

'I trust your mission was a success then?' my brow furrows.

'Actually, I am afraid not.' Before the elite can say anything I continue. 'I will discuss the details with you at a later point, the Spartan still lies semi-dormant within me. I would prefer him not to know the details.' The elite looks slightly annoyed.

'You have not purged him yet then?' I shake my head.

'I have made no attempt yet. I allowed him to go through with his mission himself to allow a more convincing façade. However, I'm afraid I will need to sometime soon. He is leaking.'

'How badly?' He asks. He is frustrated.

'It's simply a personality leak, not a behavioural. But it is rapid, so do not be surprised if I develop a tendency to speak in a colloquial fashion.' The elite nods.

'Has there been any leaking yet.'

'There has been a bit, but it is not significant.' I say.

'What kind of leaking? You know you must abide by the leaks. Not doing so can lead to self-mental damage and random stress. So what is it?' It shuffle my feet slightly.

'Do not worry. It is silly.'

'Tell me.' The elite demands. I sigh.

'I have… a strong desire to copulate.' I say with a little embarrassment. The elite begins laughing.

'He definitely has leaked then.' He laughs as he looks at the rest of the elites around the table, inviting them to join. 'That is not a problem. You have an energy sword don't you?' He asks. I am a little confused.

'Yes…Is that some kind of random fetish thing or something?' I ask. The elite shakes his head.

'Those who carry energy swords have "sword genes". And therefore, can copulate with any female they choose, married or not, to pass them down.' I take a second to think about this.

'So I can mate any female I wish?'

'Essentially.'

'What about consent?' I ask.

'Females are obliged to engage in copulation with those who possess sword genes who desire it, whether they like it or not. It is their obligation to do so. Though, they often do so freely since those with sword genes are so highly regarded.' I smile inwardly. 'So go off and enjoy yourself for a while. Return here at fourteen hundred hours tomorrow and we will assess your mental condition. Do you best to purge yourself tonight.' I nod, but have another question.

'I will require a temporary residence.' I tell him.

'You can find common houses all over the city. Just show your blade and you will be admitted into even the highest quality of them.' I scratch my head a little.

'I was thinking of something a little more private.' I say.

'Ah, yes. There will be private rooms in the upper class common houses for use. They are frequently used by swordsmen. Just ask for one. I trust you still remember our transport systems and laws?'

'Most of them. I'll get by.'

'Good. Well I will see you here tomorrow. I have much to do.' The elite turns around and heads back over to the table as I turn and leave.

[/]

I sit on some strange hovering bench thing scoping out the passers-by. It's easy to tell the female and male elites apart. The females jaws are not split like the males, their heads are not as elongated as the males; their scales look smoother and most obvious, the males don't have breasts. Fucking huge breasts. Probably interferes with their combat ability. Their armour is also more revealing. Most of the females armour resembles an armoured two-piece bikini. Very attractive. _This is messed up._ Ah, you're awake._ I've been awake all this time you bastard, and that is messed up._ Oh please. My attraction is coming from you. You like it. _They are lizards._ They are sangheili. And lizards don't have huge-ass fucking titties. See? That's not something I would say. That's something you would say._ That is not!_ Oh whatever. Let's just go tap some ass. _Ok… that is something I would say._ See? Isn't it great to get along?_ I hate you._ Whatever. One elite catches my eye. White scales. Busty. Nice ass. I stand up and follow behind her.

'Excuse me ma'am.' She stops and turns around.

'Who is this? A strange young male. You probably wish to court me I assume.' She says as she looks me up and down.

'Actually I was hoping we could skip the courting and let me mount you.' She frowns at my offer.

'I have been propositioned by many great warriors. Why would I mate with one as small and scrawny as yourself?' I reach into my belt and take out my energy sword.

'This.'

[/]

_What the fuck? Where am i? I am standing in the middle of nowhere. The ground is a consistent shade of brown. _Ajay. There you are._ I turn around to face my opponent. He holds an energy sword in one hand, so do i._ this won't take long Ajay. Don't worry. I just have to kill you and your body, your knowledge, your skills, will all be mine._ What? Fuck off! I raise my sword in front of me._ You cannot beat me Ajay. I am stronger, physically and mentally. I am in control. I control your body, I control your mind. You are weak, I am strong. My mental strength is projected here. I am in control. _I charge at him with a yell and swing my blade. He moves like wind, ducks around the side of me and lashes out with his blade. I stand rigid as I look down at the blade in my chest. So fast… I feel the world around me begin to disappear slowly, sucked away into the distance._ See? Didn't I tell you I would make this quick?

[/]

I slowly open my eyes. I can feel warmth beneath me. I run my hand along the soft backside of the sleeping elite underneath me, caressing it gently. I smile a little as I feel a wet, sticky patch. I gingerly slide my hand down further between her legs and begin rubbing softly. She lets out a little moan as I speed up a little, rubbing harder. She begins moving her rump up and down in time with me. I move my hand away to my mouth and lick my fingers clean of the juices. I slide one finger back down between her legs. I continue for a couple more minutes, up till the point where she makes a mess of the bed. I use my tongue and clean up, then leave the post-orgasmic elite alone in the bed. I must have been tired after that last one. It was the fourth one in a row.

_Oh fuck…_Crap. You again? You are a tough bastard aren't you? No matter. I'll kill you again tonight. _Fuck you._

[/]

The white elite is standing at the table again, same as yesterday. He is standing alone this time.

'Has the purging been completed yet?' he asks without turning around.

'Negative. He has survived.'

'Our research indicated one death would be enough. What has gone wrong?'

'Perhaps it has something to do with the AI. The AI implanted a further strengthened personality in him, which is more difficult to eliminate. I will continue to attempt to purge.' The elite grunts angrily.

'Well get it over with.'

[/]

_I am back in my dream plain again. The other me stands opposite still._ Let's try this a little differently._ What? There is suddenly an army of covenant behind him, brutes, elites, hunters, grunts, drones and jackals. How did you do that? _Simple. This is a dream. I can do what I want. My mental strength is greater than yours, so my thinking capacity is greater than yours. These are the covenant you have killed all through your life._ I close my eyes tightly, trying to think. I open them. There are two marines beside me with pistols. _That will not save you._ A huge wave of plasma rounds, spikes, lasers and beams comes thundering towards me…_

[/]

_You can't kill me that easily._ Evidently not. I feel something on my legs. I lean back in my seat with a smile as I feel the elite going to work on me. It feels like every part of their body is especially designed for sex. I briefly open my eyes to look at the head of the elite bobbing up and down between my legs. I reach one hand up to the back of her head and pull her down in time. My other hand reaches down and gropes at the elites softs breasts as I breathe huskily; the pressure is building up in me. I finally pull her head right down as I release myself. I collapse back in my seat, exhausted.

'Yeah… that a girl.' I croon as she cleans up the mess. _I try to ignore the incredibly hot elite's tongue as I think to myself. I can't win like this. He's too strong. He has more control than me. Even Jun… I couldn't stop him. I couldn't save him. I have been trying to shut it out of my head, but it comes back so vividly. The look on his face, the pistol… what happened next? I shot him… I find myself unable to imagine the shot. Wait, why is that? Why is it that I can remember all it so vividly except the shooting? Because he didn't show me the shooting… why not? Can he hear me thinking this? No, he's probably too occupied by his blowjob… why didn't he show me? Somebody so obsessed with proving others mental weakness, but he doesn't show me shooting Jun? Wait, how did the UNSC get hold of him? Maybe… he was in the falcon crash..._

[/]

You know, I almost hope you survive this again. I'm really getting into this whole ritual of sex and sleeping. _Well I'm not dying this time._ Is that so?_ The army of covenant appears behind him again. I understand what happened now._ Please, enlighten me._ You are going on about all this this about how mentally strong you are, but you're scared._ I'm sorry?_ You didn't kill Jun._ Still in denial I see._ You couldn't kill him because I stopped you. I overpowered you; I stopped you from pulling that trigger. I am stronger than you._ You could have fooled me._ You couldn't shoot him, you tried to but couldn't, and the falcon crashed. You were knocked out in the crash and found by the UNSC._ Very good, but that doesn't mean you are stronger than me. _You have knowledge and skill, but mental strength comes from belief and feeling. _I'm sorry?_ If you don't believe in something you have little mental strength. Your mental strength is simply fuelled by your own lust for power, mine is fuelled by emotion and feeling, and I've got a hell of a lot of that right now._ Do you understand what you are saying or are you simply making up heaps of metaphysical shit? _I am pissed off. That's just another name for anger. Who are you?_ This again? I am you._ What else are you?_ I am covenant._ Exactly. I see him step back in shock. I hold my arms up, regarding the army behind me. You see this? This is every person the covenant has killed. I look over my shoulder. An army of silhouettes stands, armed with all sorts, pitchforks, assault rifles, wooden boards, grenade, all kinds. What they lack in arms, they make up for in sheer numbers. At the front of the silhouette army stand another four figures. I'm sure you know these guys. I call them noble team. _I must admit. I am impressed. _I hold one hand up in the air, then drop it. My army of shadows morphs itself into an epic rolling wave of black, millions of unknown civilians and soldiers become one powerful wave. The wave transforms into a horde of soldiers again as it approaches the covenant and opens fire. The air is filled with the sound of battle. Hunters fire their cannons; soldiers fire their assault rifles, everywhere. But there is only one target for me. I duck and dodge around the combatants from either side, looking desperately for him. Meet you in the middle. I run in the general direction of the middle of the horde. I find a relatively large clearing where I wait. He ducks around the side of a hunter and stands opposite me. We both have our swords ready. We charge at each other without a word. I quickly dodge backwards as his sword comes arcing through the air. I swing quickly and our swords clash in mid-air with a blue flash. I jump back. Be careful, you wouldn't want to die, cos' you only have one life. _I only need one life. I am more powerful than you, my strength is greater. You cannot defeat me._ I slowly walk towards him with my sword ready. I hold my arm out to the side, standing at two metres distance, and drop my sword._ What's this about then?_ He smiles. I cannot defeat you. You are too strong. Your strength is greater._ So what is it you are doing now?_ Cheating. His head explodes in a cone of red. The droplets of blood stop in mid-air. His body stops falling, the fighting stops. I look at the figure standing behind his body and salute._

'_Thanks Emile.'_

[/]

I lurch forward out of bed. The elite beside me jumps, startled. I immediately jump out of bed and start pulling my clothes on.

'You do not wish to mount me again?' the elite asks with lust. I look over at the naked female before me.

'You have no idea how much I want to tap you right now, but I can't.' I say with a hint of regret as I pull my armour on. I'm free! I feel so much stronger now. I feel like I have control of the other me's skills now. I can also remember. The falcon crash, the pistol, Jun, crawling away from the wreckage. Alive. I also remember where the phantom is. I run out the door of the common house into the city. I understand the way the city works. The directions to the spaceport… I run off in the direction of the spaceport with my helmet under my arm.

[/]

There are a dozen phantoms in the hangar I am in. I spot one in the same spot I arrived in and run for it. I jump into the grav lift and float up into the phantom. Kreimlei sees me and gives me a confused look.

'Raasei? What are you doing here?' he asks.

'Going back to new mombasa.' I say to him.

'What? Why?' he asks me.

'Secret. Spec-ops.' I inform him as I sit down.

'Huh, I haven't heard of any trips to-'

'Kreimlei!' I say in with the same authoritive tone. 'Are you going to believe me or those shoddy navigation guys?' Kreimlei thinks for a moment.

'Good point. I hate those unreliable bastards.' He mutters and walks into the cockpit and starts the phantom.

[/]

'There it is. New Mombasa is just down there.' Kreimlei calls from the cockpit. I look down through the porthole at the magnificent blue-green orb.

'What are our co-ordinates right now? I mean, if we dropped a plasma grenade towards earth right now, where would it land?'

'Somewhere in Egypt I think.' Egypt. Better than nothing. I put my helmet on and seal it. 'Why do you ask?' He calls back.

'Oh, no reason.' I slap a button on the wall. The door of the phantom swings down and depressurizes.

'What are you-' I jump out of the phantom towards earth. The frag grenade i dropped goes off behind me, propelling me through space away from the phantom.

I activate my emergency armour lock as I start speeding up through the vast emptiness of space. My body is frozen by the energy shield enclosing me. It is a strange, tranquil feeling. Also lonely. I begin falling faster and faster through the atmosphere. I can see the flames about me as I fall. I watch the earth slowly getting closer and closer. I eventually reach the point where I can see the sand of the desert beneath me; it comes closer as a blur. I close my eyes as the last kilometres approach, knowing I'll be dizzy as hell if I don't. I open my eyes. I have landed without realising it.

My armour lock deactivates and I stand up again, brushing some sand off my armour and climbing out of the crater I made. I remove my helmet and stretch, running my armoured hand across my face, my scaly face. I take an emergency beacon, activate it and toss it on the ground. I look out at the distant horizon. Shades of crimson and yellow dance around each other with tinges of pink. I sit down in the sand and cross my legs as I stare into the distance, the sun sets on a chapter of my life as I wait for rescue, and the start of yet another approaches …

[/\]-[\/]-[/\]-[\/]-[/\]-[\/]-[/\]-[\/]-[/\]-[\/]-[/\]-[\/]-[/\]-[\/]-[/\]-[\/]


End file.
